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Grant in Saint Louis 



The Committee on Publications of The Franklin Club of 
Saint Louis certifies that one hundred copies of "Grant in 
Saint Louis" have been printed for members of the club. 



Grant in Saint Louis 

By 

Walter B. Stevens 




From letters in the Manuscript 
Collection of William K. Bixby 



The Franklin Club of Saint Louis 

MDCCCCXVI 



■ 584- 



COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY 
THE FRANKLIN CLUB OF SAINT LOUIS 



SEP -7 1916 



©GI.A437572 



Table of Contents 

Introduction: Grant's Letters .... ix 

Grant, the Boy 3 

Grant, the Lieutenant 9 

Grant, the Farmer 23 

Grant, the Business Man 41 

Grant, the General 65 

Grant's Habits 85 

Grant, the President 99 

Grant and the Whiskey Ring .... 109 

Grant and the Third Term 139 

The Grant Farm Letters 147 



Illustrations 

Portrait of Grant in 1864 . . . Frontispiece 
Grant's Log Cabin in 1868 . Facing page 21 
Fac-simile of endorsement on letter 

of W. D.W. Barnard . . Facing page 107 



Granfs Letters 



Grant's Letters 

Grant's letters reveal him. The great commander 
was a man of few spoken words. He avoided speeches. 
His Memoirs are wonderful military history, but 
were written while disease was preying. Of the state 
papers within the eight years at the White House no 
one can be sure how much was Grant's and hozv 
much was the secretaries'. Biographers have looked 
through lenses of varying power and color. His 
personal letters give the nearest vision and most 
satisfying appreciation of Grant, the man. 

Two collections of these letters have been pub- 
lished. Grant corresponded with Elihu B. Wash- 
burne from the beginning of the Civil War to about 
the time the third term nomination was attempted in 
1880. The letters to Washburne were made public 
several years ago. When Grant entered the army as 
colonel of an Illinois regiment in 1861, Washburne 
was the member of Congress from the Galena dis- 
trict. He had been in Congress nearly ten years and 
was influential. Grant moved from St. Louis to 
Galena in 18 '59 to enter the leather business with his 
brothers, their father supplying the capital. Wash- 
burne had faith in Grant and was his friend at 
Washington. The letters show that Grant realized 
this. They were written with utmost frankness. Mr. 
Washburne was in Congress not only throughout 
the Civil War but until 1869 when Grant, having 
been elected President, offered him the first place in 
his cabinet, Secretary of State. The position was 
not congenial to Washburne and he was appointed 
minister to France. 

ix 



Grant* s Letters 

The second collection of Grant letters was given 
more recent publicity. These letters are from the 
farm near St. Louis, from the camp in war, from 
the White House and from stopping places on the 
journey around the world. They were written by 
Grant to his father, his sister and other home folks. 

A third collection of Grant letters supplies the 
motive of this book. Some time after the war Grant 
came into possession of the old Dent estate on the 
Gravois road. There he had gone a-courting when 
he was a lieutenant. There he had built his first 
home. There his children were born. Grant em- 
ployed a superintendent, improved the land and 
acquired blooded stock. These letters relate to "the 
Grant farm." They were written on White House 
stationery. As the President neared the close of 
his second term, his interest in the St. Louis farm- 
increased. He expended money freely in his plans of 
improvement. Evidently he contemplated retirement 
to White Haven, as the estate had been known for 
generations. Suddenly came the Whiskey Ring 
exposures. They centered in St. Louis. They involved 
men of high official position and of influential busi- 
ness standing, men whom Grant had known well and 
looked upon as friends for many years. Some of 
those caught in the conspiracy sought to convey the 
impression that the President had connived at the 
frauds. Until April, 1875, Grant's strong interest 
in the farm was shown in his letters of insttuc- 
tion to his superintendent. On the 10th of May 
revenue officers arrived in St. Louis and seized ten 



Grant's Letters 

distilleries. A grand jury was called and investiga- 
tion of the frauds led to many indictments. In July 
a relative of Mrs. Grant wrote on the stationery of 
the Kirkwood hotel a long letter to the President 
telling him of the boasts the indicted were making 
that he would not let them suffer. The trials had 
not then taken place. This letter is in the Bixby 
collection. On the back of it, in the handwriting of 
Grant, is indorsed: 
" Referred to the Sec. of the Treas. This was in- 
tended as a private letter for my information and 
contained many extracts from St. Louis not deemed 
necessary to forward. They are obtainable and have 
no doubt been all read by the federal officials in 
St. Louis. I forward this for information and to 
the end that if it throws any light upon new parties 
to summon as witnesses they may be brought out. 
Let no guilty man escape if it can be avoided. Be 
specially vigilant — or instruct those engaged in the 
prosecutions to be — against all who insinuate that 
they have high influence to protect, or to protect 
them. No personal consideration should stand in 
the way of performing a public duty." 

j i *l i„„ U. S. Grant. 

July 2Qth, 75. 

Throughout that summer of 187$ tne investiga- 
tion went on. Indicted distillers, gangers and store- 
keepers broke down and confessed. They implicated 
higher officials — supervisors, collectors of internal 
revenue, special agents, Treasury officials at Wash- 
ington. Day by day the "Great Whiskey Ring" 

xi 



Grant's Letters 

scandal was the leading news feature in the papers. 
Urgent pressure was brought to bear upon President 
Grant to retire from his Cabinet Secretary of the 
Treasury Bristow who was pushing the exposures. 
For months it was unsuccessful. In August an ex- 
amination of telegraph files at St. Louis and Wash- 
ington brought to light messages in the handwriting 
of General Orville E. Babcock, the President's secre- 
tary, signed with an assumed name and addressed 
to ringleaders in the conspiracy. It became public 
information that the grand jury was considering the 
fresh evidence and that the indictment of Babcock 
was impending. 

On the 24-th of September President Grant came 
to St. Louis. He remained four days and went on 
to Des Moines to attend the annual encampment of 
the Grand Army of the Republic. The following 
month Grant directed his business representative in 
St. Louis "to close out all his personal property, 
and to rent or lease out the farm and to give posses- 
sion upon perfecting the lease." This was done. 
"The Grant Farm" became a reminiscence. Grant 
traveled much and made his home in the East. He 
seldom came to St. Louis. He took little or no more 
interest in White Haven. 

These letters of Grant are in the manuscript col- 
lection of Mr. W. K. Bixby, through whose courtesy 
the Franklin Club now publishes them. They gain 
much interest and significance when their relation- 
ship, in point of time, with the Whiskey Ring is 
recalled. W.B. S. 



xn 



Grant, the Boy 



Grant f the Boy 

Second Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant reported 
for duty at Jefferson Barracks the 30th of Sep- 
tember, 1843. Young West Pointers in that per- 
iod were called upon at graduation to express 
their preference for branch of service; also for 
the regiment to which they wished to be assigned. 
They gave first and second choices. Grant's first 
choice was the dragoons, as the cavalry was then 
called. He missed that and was assigned to his 
second choice, the 4th Infantry. Notwithstand- 
ing his service was to be with a foot regiment, he 
brought from his Ohio home to St. Louis his 
horse, saddle and bridle. 

Grant was called "The Tanner Boy" by one 
of his biographers. In his Memoirs he writes of 
his boyhood: "While my father carried on the 
manufacture of leather and worked at the trade 
himself, he owned and tilled considerable land. 
I detested the trade, preferring almost any other 
labor; but I was fond of agriculture and of all 
employment in which horses were used." 

When he was seven or eight years old he drove 
the team which hauled wood from his father's 
fifty acres of forqst to the house and the shops. 
Others loaded and unloaded, but the small boy 
handled the team. From the time he was eleven 
years old he "did all of the work that was done 
with horses" on the farm. As one of his com- 
pensations for the work he was allowed, occasion- 
ally, to take a horse and ride away fifteen miles 
to visit grandparents in an adjoining county. 



Grant, the Boy 

Once the boy went seventy miles with a two- 
horse carriage to take some people to Chillicothe 
and drove back alone. 

He made other trips with the horses. One of 
these was to Flat Rock in Kentucky. At Flat 
Rock he saw a fine saddle horse and offered to 
trade for it one of his father's horses which he 
was driving. The owner of the saddle horse 
wouldn't consider the trade until he learned that 
the boy was allowed to do about as he pleased 
with the horses. Grant was then fifteen. The 
owner frankly said he did not know that his 
horse had ever had on a collar. The boy was 
willing to take the chance and the bargain was 
made. Grant got the saddler into harness and 
hitched him to a farm wagon for trial. It was 
evident that the horse had never been broken to 
harness, but Grant thought he could manage, 
and with ten dollars "boot" in his pocket started 
to drive the seventy miles home. He made good 
progress until a vicious dog jumped out in the 
road. The horses ran; the new one "kicked at 
every jump he made." The boy recovered con- 
trol and stopped the team before damage was 
done. He thought he had quieted the horses, 
but as soon as he started they began kicking 
and running. This second runaway came to an 
end on the edge of a steep embankment twenty 
feet high, with the green horse trembling from 
fright. As often as Grant tried to start there was 
more plunging and kicking. The boy got out, 



Grant, the Boy 

took a large colored handkerchief — it was called 
a bandana in those days — and blindfolded the 
horse. In this way he reached Maysville where 
he borrowed a driving horse from a relative and 
led his saddle horse the rest of the way. 

u Lys" Grant was the identical boy in a horse 
story which has since become an American stable 
classic. The boy was sent to buy a colt. His 
father told him to offer twenty dollars first and 
raise to twenty-two and a half and then to 
twenty-five if he couldn't buy cheaper. When 
the boy got to the place he said to the owner: 
"Papa says I may offer you twenty-dollars for 
the colt; but if you won't take that I may offer 
you twenty-two and a half; and if you won't 
take that I may give you twenty-five." Grant 
was that boy. He admits it in his Memoirs: 

"This story is nearly true. I certainly showed 
plainly that I had come for the colt and meant 
to have him. I could not have been over eight 
years old at the time. This transaction caused 
me great heart-burning. The story got out 
among the boys of the village, and it was a long 
time before I heard the last of it. Boys enjoy 
the misery of their companions, at least village 
boys in that day did, and in later life I have 
found that all adults are not free from the pecu- 
liarity. I kept the horse until he was four years 
old, when he went blind, and sold him for twenty 
dollars. When I went to Maysville to school, 
in 1836, at the age of fourteen, I recognized my 



Grant, the Boy 

colt as one of the blind horses working in the 
tread-wheel of the ferry-boat." 

When Grant came home for his furlough after 
two years at West Point there was awaiting him 
a young horse that had never been in harness. 
The father remembered the son's favorite recrea- 
tion and provided for it in this way. Two years 
later Grant returned home a second lieutenant 
of infantry. He immediately ordered his uni- 
form. It was a time of "great suspense," he 
says, until he could "get in that uniform and see 
how it looked." He frankly admits that he 
wanted his old schoolmates, "particularly the 
girls," to see him in it. In later life Grant was 
thought to be rather careless of personal appear- 
ance. A picture, an old daguerreotype, taken 
when he was a young officer and smooth shaven 
gives an impression of Grant altogether different 
from the pictures taken during and after the war. 

The young lieutenant in his brand new uni- 
form quickly came to grief. This is another 
horse story and of his own telling. Soon after 
the suit came home from the tailor's, Grant 
"donned it and put off for Cincinnati on horse- 
back." He rode slowly along the streets of the 
city, imagining that every one was looking at 
him. A little boy, bareheaded, barefooted, with 
trousers held up by one suspender and a shirt 
that had not seen a washtub for weeks, shouted 
shrilly to him: "Soldier! will you work? No 
Sir-ee; I'll sell my shirt first." Grant says: 
"The horse trade and its dire consequences were 
recalled to mind." 

6 



Grant, the Lieutenant 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

Extraordinary fondness for horses was one of 
the marked characteristics of Grant. It began 
in his early boyhood. It grew with him to man- 
hood. It is shown in the series of letters this 
book contains. Indirectly it led to Grant's court- 
ship and marriage. Basely it was treated as a 
weakness and abused in the attempt to smirch 
the great soldier's name. 

At Jefferson Barracks in 1843, Grant was under 
the command of General Stephen Watts Kearny, 
afterwards the Mexican war hero. If the young 
lieutenants attended roll calls and drills punc- 
tually, they might go where they chose when off 
duty. Kearny required no written applications 
for leave. He did not care to know where the 
lieutenants were going or how long they intended 
to stay, if they returned in time for duty. To the 
horse, saddle and bridle brought from Ohio, 
Grant turned for favorite recreation. He rode 
out from the Barracks into the suburbs of St. 
Louis and soon found his way to White Haven, 
the home of the Dents. In Grant's class at West 
Point was Fred T. Dent, son of the owner of 
White Haven. During their last year at the 
Academy, Grant and Dent roomed together. 
The young Ohio lieutenant was welcomed. His 
rides to White Haven were frequent. An older 
daughter of the house of Dent, Miss Julia, had 
been at boarding school in St. Louis. She was 
visiting relatives, Colonel John O'Fallon's fam- 
ily, when Grant began his rides to White Haven. 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

After Miss Julia returned home it was noticed 
that the lieutenant came more frequently. There 
were walks and rides and visits to neighbors. 
Grant became well known in the Gravois com- 
munity. If the 4th Infantry had remained at 
Barracks this situation, Grant says, "might have 
continued for some years without my finding out 
that anything was the matter with me." But in 
the spring of 1844, agitation over the annexation 
of Texas and threatened trouble with Mexico 
became serious. The 4th Infantry was ordered 
to Red River. Grant was on leave visiting his 
Ohio home when his regiment left. He hurried 
back to St. Louis, got a few days longer leave 
from Lieutenant Ewell, who was afterwards a 
famous Confederate general, mounted a horse 
and rode over the familiar route from the Bar- 
racks to White Haven. Gravois creek was boom- 
ing. At that time there was not. a bridge the 
entire length of the creek. Ordinarily the flow 
of water wasn't enough "to run a coffee mill," as 
Grant described it. When the lieutenant reached 
his usual fording place, the water was over the 
banks and running swiftly. Grant stopped and 
thought. Casually recalling that experience in his 
Memoirs he makes, in simple, homely expres- 
sions, a revelation of that trait which was to 
astound the world a few years later. When, as 
the general, he moved toward Richmond by the 
left flank and sent back word to Washington, 
"We will fight it out on this line if it takes 

10 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

all summer," he was only reiterating what he 
thought as he sat on his horse at the edge of 
unfordable Gravois creek. 
"One of my superstitions had always been when 
I started to go anywhere, or to do anything, not 
to turn back, or stop until the thing intended 
was accomplished. I have frequently started to 
go to places where I had never been and to which 
I did not know the way, depending upon making 
inquiries on the road, and if I got past the place 
without knowing it, instead of turning back I 
would go on until a road was found turning in 
the right direction, take that, and come in by the 
other side." 

This "superstition" was applied twenty years 
later when Grant tried first one route and then 
another to get into Vicksburg until he had com- 
pletely circled the supposed impregnable strong- 
hold of the Confederacy and compelled surrender. 
He struck into the Gravois, was carried down 
stream, kept his horse headed to the west and 
climbed the other bank. But he was wet to the 
skin when he reached White Haven. The re- 
sourceful Miss Julia promptly produced a suit of 
her brother's clothes. Sitting in the borrowed 
garments, which were a bad fit, Grant told of the 
discovery he had made when he learned that he 
had been ordered away from Jefferson Barracks. 
The young lady modestly admitted that she had 
felt "a depression of spirits" for which she could 
not account when the regiment left. They 

ii 



Grant , the Lieutenant 

parted with "an agreement." That was in May, 
1 844. The "agreement" continued until the 22nd 
of August, 1848, when it was fulfilled. During 
the more than four years Grant saw Miss Dent 
only once; that was in May, 1845, when he came 
back to St. Louis on a short leave and got the 
consent of the parents to a formal engagement. 

White Haven was given its name in memory 
of the old home of the Dents in Maryland. The 
original White Haven was a grant from King 
Charles to the ancestors of the Frederick Dent 
who came to Missouri in 1815. White Haven on 
the Gravois road consisted of nearly 1,000 acres. 
Dent bought when land was cheap. It is history 
that one of the large estates near White Haven 
was acquired in the pioneer period by a trade of 
whiskey for land on the basis of one gallon of 
whiskey for each acre of ground. 

Grant returned with his regiment from Mexico 
in the summer of 1 848. He obtained four months 
leave of absence, came to St. Louis and was mar- 
ried on the 22nd of August to Miss Julia Dent, 
who was described in a St. Louis paper as "a lady 
of refinement and elegant manners." The Dents 
were Southerners originally but had lived for 
many years on the large estate southwest of the 
city. They owned slaves and farmed on an ex- 
tensive scale. At the same time the head of the 
house, Colonel Frederick Dent, dealt in land 
claims. He acquired possession of an old Span- 
ish claim which he tried to enforce against a 

12 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

considerable portion of Carondelet, afterwards 
annexed to St. Louis. Colonel Dent was pressing 
this claim at the time of the marriage and for 
several years after that event. He was finally 
defeated and took the loss with a good deal of 
feeling. 

The marriage of Lieutenant Grant to Miss 
Dent took place at the Dent town house on 
Fourth and Cerre streets. The house was not in 
the most fashionable part of the city but in a 
very respectable locality, near the Sacred Heart 
convent and the French market. Chouteau 
avenue, with its mansions, was only a short dis- 
tance. The wedding ceremony was followed by 
dancing which continued until midnight. Offi- 
cers from the Barracks were present. One of 
them was Longstreet, afterwards the Confeder- 
ate general. Military marriages between army 
officers and St. Louis girls were frequent in those 
days. 

Grant was assigned first to Sackett's Harbor 
and then to Detroit. In 1852 his regiment was 
ordered to the Pacific Coast. Mrs. Grant and 
the boy, Frederick Dent Grant, who became a 
major-general in the United States Army and 
died in 1913, came to the home in St. Louis to 
remain until the husband and the father could 
arrange to have them join him in California. The 
4th Infantry was ordered to Fort Vancouver on 
the Columbia river, where potatoes were selling at 
sixteen cents a pound. There Grant's knowledge 

13 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

of horses came into play again. The lieutenant 
bought a team which had crossed the plains 
and was very poor. Under his care the horses 
recuperated. While Grant broke the ground, 
three of his fellow officers dropped and covered 
the seed potatoes. This was to be a speculation 
that might show the way to bring out the family 
to the Coast. The crop nourished and promised 
enormous yield. Grant tells the result: 

"Luckily for us the Columbia river rose to a 
great height from the melting of the snow in the 
mountains in June, and overflowed and killed 
most of our crop. This saved digging it up, for 
everybody on the Pacific Coast seemed to have 
come to the conclusion at the same time that 
agriculture would be profitable. In 1853 more 
than three-quarters of the potatoes raised were 
permitted to rot in the ground, or had to be 
thrown away. The only potatoes we sold were 
to our own mess." 

On the 5th of July, 1853, Grant reached his 
captaincy and joined his company at Humboldt 
Bay, California. In 1854 ne resigned from the 
army. He had been separated from wife and 
children three years. He resigned because, "I 
saw no chance of supporting them on the Pacific 
Coast out of my pay as an army officer." 

In 1850 Mrs. Grant came home to St. Louis 
from Detroit where Grant was then stationed. 
Fred Dent Grant was born at St. Louis, in May 
of that year. He was given the name of his 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

maternal grandfather. There was a domestic 
reason why Mrs. Grant did not accompany her 
husband when the 4th Infantry was sent rather 
suddenly to the Pacific Coast in June, 1852. 
Mrs. Grant went first to the home of her hus- 
band's people at Bethel in Ohio where, in July, 
Ulysses, the second son, was born. When the 
mother and baby were able to travel, Mrs. Grant 
returned to St. Louis and remained with the 
Dents until her husband left the army. Colonel 
Dent's negroes named the baby "Buckeye," be- 
cause he was born in Ohio. That was shortened 
to Buck by which Ulysses was known even after 
he grew to manhood. In his family letters Grant 
spoke of this second son as Buck. He called him 
Buck to the last days. The two younger children 
were born in the four years on the farm; Ellen, or 
Nellie, as she was called later, was born in the 
summer of 1855, and Jesse Root, named for the 
paternal grandfather, was born in the winter of 
1858. 

There is a Jefferson Barracks tradition of Grant 
told to illustrate his fearlessness. The lieutenant 
was drilling his company when his commanding 
officer came by with some other officers and asked : 

"Where are the rest of your men, Lieutenant?" 

"Absent, by your leave, sir." 

"That is not true." 

Grant turned to the sergeant and told him to 
take command; then putting the point of his 
sword to the officer's breast said: 

15 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

"Unless you apologize at once for this insult I 
will run you through." 

The officer apologized. There are recollections 
of Grant's grit in the Gravois settlement. One 
night a bad man of the neighborhood became 
boisterous at a dance. Grant told him to be 
quiet. The bad man talked back. Grant kicked 
him out the door and into the road. 

Some teamsters met Grant and a neighbor at 
a narrow place in the road. Grant was on the 
way to the mines with a load of props. The 
teamsters, relying on numbers and strength, 
crowded Grant and his companion into the ditch. 
Grant seized a club and with "Come on!" led the 
way to an attack which routed the teamsters. 

In the social circle of which Jefferson Barracks 
was the center, Grant, during his lieutenant days, 
was called "the pretty little lieutenant" and 
"the little blue-eyed beauty." He was not only 
smooth-faced but he had "a clear, pink and white 
complexion." These descriptions do not suggest 
Grant the farmer, Grant the general, and Grant 
the President. They accord well with the his- 
torical fact that when the 4th Infantry officers 
got up amateur private theatricals to while away 
the time, they cast Lieutenant Grant for the part 
of Desdemona, and he played it. 

Grant was a man of hardly average height, but 
he mounted a large horse with ease. He did it 
after a manner of his own. He did not climb 
into the saddle. He did not pull himself up with 

16 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

his hands. With his left foot in the stirrup and 
his left hand on the mane, he arose without 
jumping and by straightening the left leg until 
his body was high enough to let him swing the 
right leg over the back of the saddle. Then he 
let himself down into the seat. The movement 
was rapid but without spring or jolt. 

The story of the Cicotte mare illustrates aptly 
Grant's expertness as well as enjoyment in the 
handling of horses. A Canadian Frenchman, 
David Cicotte, had a speedy little black mare to 
which Grant took a liking while he was stationed 
in Detroit. The lieutenant agreed to give Cicotte 
$200 for the mare if she could pace a mile in 2:55 
drawing two men in a buggy. The mare did it 
with the owner and the lieutenant in the vehicle. 
Grant trained and drove the mare until she could 
show the back of the buggy to anything in 
Detroit. He sent her to St. Louis where she won 
#1,000 in a race. The Cicotte mare, as St. Louis 
horse fanciers of that generation knew her on the 
old Abbey track, sold for #1,400. 

While Grant was at Jefferson Barracks, a young 
lieutenant, the mess of the 4th Infantry was 
presided over by Captain Robert Buchanan. 
This captain, a much older man, took it upon 
himself to be strict with the lieutenants fresh 
from West Point. A rule was adopted that any 
officer late at mess should be fined a bottle of 
wine. Even if the tardy one came in just after the 
soup was served, Buchanan imposed the penalty. 

17 



Grant, the Lieutenant 

Grant was unfortunate. His frequent visits to 
White Haven were not always ended in time 
for prompt return to mess. In ten days the fine 
was imposed upon the lieutenant three times. 
The manner of the president of the mess was 
irritating: 

"Grant, you are late, as usual; another bottle 
of wine, sir." 

"Mr. President, I have been fined three bottles 
of wine within the last ten days and if I am fined 
again I shall be obliged to repudiate." 

"Mr. Grant, young people should be seen, not 
heard." 

That was in 1844. In 1854, when his promo- 
tion to captain sent him from Vancouver to Fort 
Humboldt, Grant had to report to this same 
Buchanan, then lieutenant-colonel of the 4th 
Infantry. At Vancouver there had been con- 
genial fellow officers. The potato crop was only 
one of the several business ventures of the officers. 
Grant and another shipped ice to California on a 
venture. They also tried a few shipments of 
cattle and pigs. There was something doing. At 
Fort Humboldt Buchanan made things disagree- 
able. He was still the strict disciplinarian, not 
to say martinet. He reported Grant to Wash- 
ington for drinking. Notice was served on the 
captain that he must put his resignation in the 
hands of Colonel Buchanan and that it would 
be forwarded to Washington on the next offend- 
ing. Grant declined to be put upon probation. 



Grant j the Lieutenant 

He offered Buchanan his unconditional resigna- 
tion. This is army tradition. No mention of 
the action of Colonel Buchanan appears in the 
records at the War Department. Grant's straight- 
forward resignation is there with the indorse- 
ment "accepted as tendered, Jefferson Davis, 
Secretary of War." 

Another traditional version is to the effect that 
Colonel Buchanan found Grant under the influ- 
ence of liquor one day after the latter came to 
Fort Humboldt and told him he must resign or 
stand trial. Fellow officers advised him to stand 
trial, but Grant decided that he would rather 
leave the army. As he departed he said to his 
friends, "Whoever hears of me in ten years will 
hear of a well-to-do Missouri farmer." 



19 



Grant, the Farmer 



Grant, the Farmer 

When Grant returned to St. Louis in the late 
summer of 1854 he found in his family a son whom 
hehad never seen,born while he was on thelsthmus. 
Until the fall of 1858 he farmed. The biographers 
have given the impression that this was a period of 
successive failures, of depression and discourage- 
ment. They tell how Grant grew stoopshouldered 
and sad. The letters which Grant wrote in those 
years do not bear out this. In the summer of 1857 
he sent this news from the farm to his home folks : 

"My hard work is now over for the season with 
a fair prospect of being remunerated in every- 
thing but the wheat. My wheat, which would 
have produced from four hundred to five hundred 
bushels with a good winter has yielded only 
seventy-five. My oats were good and the corn, 
if not injured by frost this fall, will be the best I 
ever raised. My potato crop bids fair to yield 
fifteen hundred bushels." 

As a matter of fact the potatoes turned out two 
hundred bushels to the acre. Another year he 
sent this cheerful account of prospects: 

"This spring has opened finely for farming and 
I hope to do well; but I shall wait until the crops 
are gathered before I make predictions. I shall 
have about twenty acres of potatoes, twenty of 
corn, twenty-five of oats, fifty of wheat, twenty- 
five of meadow, some clover, Hungarian grass and 
other small products, all of whichwill require labor 
before they are got to market and the money real- 
ized for them." 

23 



Grant, the Farmer 

In none of these letters written to members 
of his father's family is there note of pessimism 
or discouragement. There are pleasant bits of 
domestic news and comment, such as this: 
"Little Ellen is growing very fast and talks now 
quite plainly. Fred does not read yet, but he 
will, I think, in a few weeks. Jesse R. is growing 
very rapidly, is very healthy and, they say, is the 
best looking child among the four. I don't think, 
however, there is much difference between them 
in that respect." 

Jesse R. was named for the paternal grand- 
father. "Little Ellen" became Nellie Grant, who 
was married in the White House. 

Years afterwards, looking back upon those years 
of farming in the Gravois settlement, Grant wrote 
that he "managed to keep along well until 1858." 
He gave up the farm because of a stubborn siege 
of fever and ague. He had suffered from this in 
boyhood. The ailment returned while he was 
farming and lasted over a year. It did not keep 
him in the house but it interfered with his work. 

In the winter of 1854 Grant built a house on 
"the eighty" which her father had given Mrs. 
Grant. He says he "worked very hard, never 
losing a day because of bad weather and accom- 
plished the object in a moderate way." The 
house has been called a "log cabin." It had two 
stories. A hall ran through the center, dividing 
the lower floor and making a double house. The 
upper floor was of sufficient height to give front 

24 



Grant, the Farmer 

as well as end windows. At one end of the house 
was a large stone chimney opening into a fire- 
place wide enough to take in a log of considerable 
size. Although built of logs the house was much 
more imposing than the ordinary conception of a 
"log cabin." Grant did nearly all of the work. 
He cut the trees and hewed them square, leaving 
no bark or outer wood to encourage decay. He 
"scored" or notched the ends to make the corners 
fit well. That house was built sixty years ago. 
That it stands today in a condition of excellent 
preservation is the evidence of Grant's thorough- 
ness. 

When the logs were ready neighbors came to 
the "raisin" and brought their slaves to help. 
One man stood at each corner to guide the ends of 
the logs into the scored places. The others lifted. 
Grant stood at the left front corner and "carried 
it up," as the building phrase of that day went. 
One who was there recalls that those who helped 
were Harrison Long, Upshaw McCormick, Zeno 
Mackey, Thaddeus Lovejoy, Perry Sappington, 
Lint. Sappington, and Trip Reavis. Before sun- 
down of the second day the walls were in place, 
so well had Grant prepared the logs. Grant did 
the rest of the work, putting on the roof and 
finishing the interior. 

Colonel Dent gave his son a farm from the 
south side of the estate about the time he gave 
Mrs. Grant her farm. The younger Dent built a 
neat cottage fronting the Gravois road. He called 

25 



Grant, the Farmer 

it Wish-Ton-Wish, the Indian for Whip-Poor- 
Will. When Grant had completed his log house 
and the family moved in, the question of a name 
arose, following the custom of the neighborhood. 
Grant bestowed on his wife's farm the name of 
Hardscrabble, because he said it might be a hard 
scrabble to make a living there. Man;y years 
afterwards he walked over the farm and said, "I 
moistened the ground around these stumps with 
many a drop of sweat, but they were happy days 
after all." This was more than passing sentiment, 
for after the war, when he had means, Grant im- 
proved the farm and held it until the crash of his 
fortune in the Ferdinand Ward failure of 1885. 

White Haven lay on both sides of Gravois 
creek. The Dent mansion stood in a grove of 
locusts and spruces. It was long and low with a 
two-story porch. Great stone chimneys built on 
the outside were at the ends of the main structure. 
In the rear were whitewashed quarters of the 
thirty slaves that Colonel Dent owned. Three- 
quarters of a mile south was Wish-Ton-Wish, the 
cottage of the younger Dent. A mile to the 
northwest was Hardscrabble, Grant's house, in a 
grove of oaks. It stood back about one hundred 
feet from the Ridge road. Grant hauled the stone 
for the cellar. He split the shingles. Colonel 
Dent not only gave his daughter the land but he 
also transferred to her three or four slaves. The 
negroes cut and loaded the wood which Grant 
hauled to the city. Neighbors took note that 

26 



Grant, the Farmer 

Grant seldom rode on the loaded wagon but 
walked beside it with the explanation that horses 
had enough to draw the load without a lazy 
rider. Grant received four dollars a cord for the 
wood. He usually had customers secured in 
advance but occasionally waited on the Lucas 
market place, now Twelfth street, for a buyer. 

A story which Gen. Grant enjoyed very much 
in after years turned on the wood selling experi- 
ence. General Ben Butler and Senator Nesmith 
of Oregon, who had known Grant in Vancouver 
and who was the humorist of the Senate, were 
discussing the general's wonderful popularity. 
Butler said that Grant first touched the popular 
chord when he captured Fort Donelson with his 
unconditional surrender terms. "No," Nesmith 
said, gravely, "I think he first touched the popu- 
lar cord when he hauled wood from his farm and 
sold it at full measure in St. Louis." 

Grant's desire to be independent of his father- 
in-law was strong. It prompted him to unusual 
exertions. He hauled the split wood to St. Louis 
and sold it. He worked up the branches into 
"props," such as the coal miners used in their 
drifts to support the roof. In the southwestern 
suburbs of St. Louis several mines were in opera- 
tion. Grant hauled the props to these mines and 
got five dollars a load. On the way home after 
one of these trips Grant stopped at a blacksmith 
shop and listened to a group of neighbors talking 
about the pitiable condition of a German farmer 

27 



Grant, the Farmer 

who had been burned out the night before. The 
neighbors were planning to do something. Grant 
listened and remarked, "I know that man; he is 
a good man." He took out of his pocket the five 
dollars received that day for the load ; as he handed 
it to a member of the self-appointed relief commit- 
tee, he said : "It is all I have. I wish it was more." 
One of the recollections of the Gravois settle- 
ment is of Grant's reply when he was asked to 
join in a subscription movement for a new church. 
Farmer Grant is quoted as saying: "I am very 
glad to; we ought to have a comfortable place for 
preaching. I don't attend as much as I should, 
but Julia and the children do. We ought also to 
have a Sunday school in the neighborhood." 

Grant was always a respecter of the Sabbath. 
A minister once remarked to him regretfully that 
so many of the great battles of the war were 
fought on Sunday. Grant said that was "very 
unfortunate" and, according to General Porter, 
gave this explanation: 
"Of course it was not intentional, and I think 
that sometimes, perhaps, it has been the result 
of the very efforts which have been made to 
avoid it. You see, a commander, when he can 
control his own movements, usually intends to 
start early in the week so as not to bring on an 
engagement on Sunday; but delays occur often 
at the last moment, and it may be the middle of 
the week before he gets his troops in motion. 
Then more time is spent than anticipated in 

28 



• Grant, the Farmer 

manoeuvering for position, and when the fighting 
actually begins it is the end of the week, and the 
battle, particularly if it continues a couple of 
days, runs into Sunday." 

Grant observed Sunday strictly as a day of 
rest. He would not write any official correspond- 
ence if he could help it. 

Grant had the finest team in the Gravois settle- 
ment. It was inevitable that horse stories should 
be associated with him in this as well as in all 
other periods of his life. Charles W. Ford was 
the local manager of the United States Express 
Company. He is said to have helped Grant in 
the selection of the team. He had been a warm 
personal friend of Grant at Sackett's Harbor. 
Horses always grew better in Grant's hands. It 
was not long until the neighbors began to look 
admiringly at the black and white span. Then 
stories went around about the big loads which the 
Grant team could haul. One day Grant started 
to St. Louis with sixty bushels of wheat on the 
wagon and got there. Sappington, the pioneer and 
patriarch of the neighborhood, heard the story and 
doubted it. He questioned Grant and the latter 
said: "We'll both load on sixty bushels. If I get 
to St. Louis without help and you don't, both 
loads are mine. If you get there without help 
and I don't, the one hundred and twenty bushels 
are yours." Sappington laughed and declined 
the wager, saying, "Well, Captain, I don't see 
how you do it." Many a time Captain Grant 

29 



Grant, the Farmer 

unhitched his team and helped a neighbor or a 
stranger whose horses had become stalled in a 
mud hole on the Gravois road. 

Nellie Grant was born on the 4th of July. 
Year after year during her childhood her father 
pretended to consider that the salutes and fire- 
works were in celebration of her birthday. Nellie 
was only a baby when her father taught her to 
ride on the saddle with him. A rough and tumble 
wrestling match with his growing boys was a 
frequent form of home amusement. Grant in- 
dulged in it even after he became a general. 
Those who saw these evidences of the father's 
love of companionship with his family realized 
what the long parting while he was on the Pacific 
Coast must have meant to him. 

A letter that came to St. Louis while Grant was 
"at the front" in Mississippi illustrated the strong 
family tie of the Grants: "Tell the children to 
learn their lessons, mind their grandma and be 
good children. I should like very much to see 
them. To me they are all obedient and good. I 
may be partial but they seem to me to be children 
to be proud of." 

Mrs. Dent, the mother-in-law, thought a great 
deal of Grant and showed it in many ways. Mrs. 
Grant's home name for her husband was "Ulyss." 
She called him "Mr. Grant" before strangers, 
even after he became lieutenant-general. A very 
few intimates heard her pet name of "Victor" 
given after the capture of Vicksburg. 

30 



Grant, the Farmer 

"Those were happy days in the log house," Mrs. 
Grant said after the eight years in the White 
House and the trip around the world. Her son, 
General Fred. Dent Grant, visited the log house 
on the World's Fair grounds when he was in 
St. Louis for the dedication in 1903. He went 
through the rooms, telling with emotion his recol- 
lections. He showed the room up stairs to the 
right of the middle door where he and his little 
brothers slept. He described the long winter 
evenings when the captain and Mrs. Grant sat 
with the children in a semi-circle in front of the 
blazing fire-place. He remembered that his father 
told of the campaign in Mexico. He had vivid 
recollection of what his father said of his home- 
sickness on the Pacific Coast and of his great 
desire to get home and see wife and children. 

No member of the Grant family looked back 
upon that farm life as it has been presented by 
some of the biographers. There was none of that 
poverty which has been pictured to heighten the 
contrast with the fame that came later. There 
was plenty to eat. There was social life. The 
captain and Mrs. Grant went out to the neigh- 
borhood gatherings; they had no light vehicle but 
both were good riders and each took a child on 
the horse. Grant did not dance but he played 
cards well. Checkers was his favorite game. At 
the shooting matches of the neighborhood, the 
captain held his own and got the prize, a quarter 
of beef, about as often as any of the neighbors. 

3i 



Grant, the Farmer 

Grant was popular with his neighbors along the 
Gravois road. He had no quarrels. To this day 
is remembered the way in which his sense of jus- 
tice settled a difference with two neighbors. Soon 
after Grant went on the farm there was a misun- 
derstanding as to the amount he was to pay Trip 
Reavis and Jonah Sappington for a quantity of 
cordwood. The two neighbors claimed more was 
due than Grant thought he was to pay. The cap- 
tain proposed arbitration; Sappington and Reavis 
to appoint one arbitrator; he to appoint another; 
the cost of the decision of the arbitrators to be 
paid by the loser. Reavis and Sappington named 
Ben Lovejoy as their arbitrator. The captain 
immediately said Lovejoy would suit him, too, 
and that whatever the decision he would accept 
it. Lovejoy decided that Reavis and Sappington 
were right. Grant at once paid the bill. 

There is a sequel to this incident. Most of 
those who were neighbors to Grant in his farming 
days owned slaves or from old associations sym- 
pathized with the South. In the settlement was 
formed an organization to extend aid to Confed- 
erates. Grant came up to St. Louis in January, 
1862, and in accordance with his custom went out 
to the farm to see his father-in-law. He went 
about among the neighbors. Some one proposed 
that the organization kidnap him and take him 
South a prisoner. The suggestion was promptly 
vetoed by the leaders. 

One of the traditions well preserved in the 

32 



Grant, the Farmer 

Gravois neighborhood tells how Grant dealt with 
a neighbor who did not keep the eighth command- 
ment. The Grant family was at that time liv- 
ing in Wish-Ton-Wish while the brother-in-law 
was away. The Hardscrabble woodlotwas nearly 
two miles away to the north. Grant discovered 
that somebody was stealing wood at night. He 
went on guard, selecting a bright moonlight night 
when he thought conditions were likely to en- 
courage the thief. He had not been watching 
long when a team was driven up within three or 
four rods of where he was hidden. The man was 
recognized as a renter in the vicinity. Grant 
waited until the wagon was loaded and the team 
had been driven nearly to the road; then he 
stepped in front and hailed. The conversation, 
according to tradition, was about as follows: 

"Hullo, Bill ! Going to St. Louis with that wood ?" 

"Yep." 

"How much are you asking for it?" 

"About four dollars." 

"Well, I'll take it. Bring it. over to the house." 

"Nope. Promised it to a man in town." 

"I must have it. You haul this load to my 
house, and pay me twenty dollars for what you 
have cut and hauled away. That won't be more 
than half price, you know." 

"What will you do if I don't; sue me before the 
squire?" 

"No, we won't trouble the squire or the public. 
We'll settle right here." 

33 



Grant, the Farmer 

As the story goes, Grant dropped his humorous 
manner, jumped forward and grabbed the thief 
who was much the larger of the two. "Hold on," 
the fellow called, "I'll do it, but don't tell any- 
body." The wood was unloaded at Grant's 
house, the twenty dollars were paid and the inci- 
dent was closed. Grant missed no more wood. 

Longstreet was one of the officers from Jeffer- 
son Barracks who attended the wedding of Lieu- 
tenant Grant and Miss Dent at the town house 
of the Dents. He recalled the last meeting with 
his old comrade in St. Louis before they came 
together at Appomattox. It was in 1858: 

"I was in St. Louis on business and there met a 
number of old army chums. It was a cold dreary 
day and a game of brag was proposed as most 
likely to recall old memories. We were one hand 
short when my friend Captain Holloway went 
out to find some one. He soon returned with a 
civilian poorly dressed in the garb of a farmer. 
We recognized our old friend Grant, who had 
resigned from the service a few years before and 
was at the time making an unsuccessful battle for 
existence in civil life. The next day, while I was 
standing in front of the Planter's Hotel, Grant 
stepped up and placed a five-dollar gold piece in 
my hand. He said it was a debt of honor from 
our association in the old Texas days. 

" T will not take it,' said I. 'You are now out 
of service and need it.' 

" 'But you must take it,' Grant insisted, with 

34 



Grant, the Farmer 

determination, 'I will not have what does not 
belong to me.' 
"Seeing that he was thoroughly in earnest, and 
to save him from mortification, I accepted it, and 
shaking hands, we parted. Is it any wonder that 
I hoped to meet him again after he had become 
a great general. But we never met after our part- 
ing on the steps of the Planter's Hotel in St. Louis 
until after the surrender. I was one of the Con- 
federate commissioners to arrange the details of 
the capitulation. General Grant treated us with 
great kindness. He acted as though nothing 
whatever had happened to mar the relations 
which existed in the long ago by the camp fires in 
Texas and Mexico. As we stepped aside after the 
formalities, he put his arm in mine and the first 
thing he said to me was: 

" 'Pete,' (my army sobriquet) 'let us return to 
the happy old days by playing another game of 
brag.'" ' 

General Frederick Dent Grant's recollections 
of the life in St. Louis were widely at variance 
with the biographers. He denied with emphasis 
that his father was gloomy and dispirited in the 
years that were spent in the house of logs. He 
remembered him as energetic and cheerful. On 
one occasion not long before he died, the son said 
of the farm: 

"I remember it very distinctly. Indeed my mem- 
ory begins with the transfer of my father from 
the post in Detroit. When my father was ordered 

35 



Grant, the Farmer 

to go to California, my mother and I were to 
live in St. Louis until he established a home and 
sent for us. But his pay was small, flour was 
twenty-five cents a pound, and we remained with 
my grandfather. While I was playing on the long 
porch at White Haven, the home of my mother's 
family, late in the summer of 1854, a man drove 
up in a buggy. Just as he was throwing the lap- 
robe over the dashboard a colored woman ran out 
of the house and said: 'It's Mr. Grant.' And so 
it was, but I didn't know him. It is very likely 
he didn't know me. He had resigned his com- 
mission because he couldn't support his family if 
he stayed in the army. My mother had a farm, 
about a hundred acres, I suppose, and my father, 
who was an industrious and stirring man, built a 
log house, cutting the trees and hewing them 
himself. Now bear in mind that my father had 
graduated from West Point, had served in the 
Mexican war and had been an officer in the United 
States army, yet he sacrificed his career as he 
thought, and took up his work in the wilderness, 
that he might have a home of his own and not be 
under obligations to Mr. Dent, his father-in-law." 
Grant "was a failure as a farmer," according to 
the biographers, and yet it is an historical fact 
that when Dent, the brother-in-law, went to Cali- 
fornia, he got Grant to take charge of Wish-Ton- 
Wish and run the place. It is another fact that, 
after Mrs. Dent, the mother-in-law, died in 1856 
or 1857, Colonel Dent moved to town and turned 

36 



Grant, the Farmer 

over White Haven with the thirty slaves and all 
to Grant to manage for him. In September,i858, 
Grant wrote home: "Julia and I are both sick 
with chills and fever; Freddy so dangerously ill 
that I thought I would not write until his fate 
was decided." 

The next month, October, Grant told his father 
of the decision reached in regard to the farm, in 
view of the continued illness of the family: "Mr. 
Dent and myself will make a sale this fall and get 
clear of all the stock on the place and then rent 
out the cleared land and sell about 400 acres of 
the north end of the place. As I explained to you 
this will include my place. I shall plan to go to 
Covington in the spring." 

The day before Christmas, 1858, Grant went 
into a St. Louis pawnshop and left his silver 
watch. He borrowed twenty dollars on it. His 
application for the appointment to a minor 
county office had failed. The temporary clerkship 
at the custom house had come to an end. A plan 
to freight goods over the Santa Fe trail had 
not come to anything. Months of malaria in the 
family had been expensive. A little ready money 
was needed for the Christmas season. The pawn 
ticket was preserved as a curiosity. After Grant 
died, an admirer of the general paid fifteen dol- 
lars for the scrap of paper. There is another 
Grant document of the same period. It is in 
striking contrast with the pawn ticket. Three 
months after he got the loan of twenty dollars on 

37 



Grant, the Farmer 

the watch to give his family a cheerful Christmas, 
Grant presented himself in the St. Louis Circuit 
Court and formally freed the only slave he ever 
owned. He filed this deed of emancipation: 

"Know all persons by these presents that I, 
Ulysses S. Grant, of the City and County of St. 
Louis, in the State of Missouri, for divers good 
and valuable considerations me hereunto moving, 
do hereby emancipate and set free from slavery 
my negro man William, sometimes called Wil- 
liam Jones, of mulatto complexion, aged about 
thirty-five years, and about five feet, seven inches 
in height, and being the same slave purchased by 
me of Frederick Dent. And I do hereby manu- 
mit, emancipate and set free said William from 
slavery forever. 

"In testimony whereof I hereto set my hand and 
seal at St. Louis this 29th day of March, A. D. 
1859." 

U. S. Grant. 



38 



Grant, the Business Man 



Grant, the Business Man 

When the farm was given up Colonel Dent 
advised his son-in-law to go into the real estate 
business. He proposed partnership with Harry 
Boggs, a relative. Boggs was a real estate agent 
in a small way. The firm of Boggs & Grant was 
formed in the beginning of 1859. Deskroom was 
taken in the law offices of McClelland, Hillyer & 
Mood}'. These offices were on the first floor of a 
building which had been a residence. The loca- 
tion was on Pine street midway between Second 
and Third streets. The three lawyers and the 
two real estate men occupied what had been the 
double parlors in the days when the residence 
district was east of Fourth street. In March, 
Grant wrote to his father, "I can hardly tell you 
how the business I am engaged in will turn out, 
but I believe it will be something more than a 
support." He sent some of the cards of Boggs & 
Grant and asked his father to distribute them 
among such friends in Ohio as might have busi- 
ness in St. Louis, "such as buying and selling 
property, collecting either rents or other liabili- 
ties." The family had moved into town. "We 
are living in the lower part of the city, full two 
miles from my office," Grant wrote in one of his 
letters home. "The house is a comfortable little 
one, just suited to my means. We have one spare 
room and also a spare bed in the children's room, 
so that we can accommodate any of our friends 
that are likely to come." 

The home to which Grant referred was on 

41 



Grant, the Business Man 

i y^sTinth and Barton streets. It was a cottage with 
a steep roof and large shade trees overhanging. 
This property was acquired by trading the Hard- 
scrabble farm. There was a mortgage on the city 
place, which the seller agreed to take care of when 
it fell due. In the exchange Grant received a note 
for #3,000. He wrote home: "If I could get that 
cashed I would build two houses that would pay 
#40 a month rent." This was in 1859 while he 
was in the real estate business. The letter con- 
veyed a glimpse of fatherly pride: "Fred and 
Buck go to school every day. They never ask to 
stay at home." 

While the trade of Hardscrabble looked well on 
its face the sequel was litigation and loss. The 
man who sold the house and agreed to take care 
of the mortgage didn't do so. Grant sued for the 
return of Hardscrabble. The lawsuit dragged 
along several years. 

To Harry Boggs Grant explained the idea of 
his father-in-law about the real estate business in 
this way: "The old gentleman is trying to per- 
suade me to go into business with some one, and 
he speaks of you. He thinks I could soon learn 
the details, and that my large acquaintance 
among army officers would bring enough addi- 
tional customers to make it support both our 
families." 

Grant had driven in from the farm with a load 
of corn to sell when he had this conversation. 
Boggs answered: "I have worked hard to build 

42 



Grant, the Business Man 

it up and I do not want a partner unless he can 
increase, but I think you can. Come and see me 
next time you are in town." 

Mrs. Boggs was a niece of Colonel Dent. She 
had been present at the wedding of Lieutenant 
Grant and her cousin Julia Dent. She favored 
the partnership, arranging that Grant should 
have the use of an unfurnished room in the house 
where the Boggs family lived, No. 209 South 
Fifteenth street, until he moved Mrs. Grant and 
the children in from the farm. Grant put in a 
bedstead with one mattress and a washbowl on a 
chair. He did not go to the expense of a carpet. 
In that room he slept during the months of Jan- 
uary and February, 1859, walking out to the farm 
Saturday evenings to spend Sunday with the 
family. 

Colonel Dent had some ground for his reference 
to the large acquaintance of his son-in-law with 
army officers. All of the time that Grant was 
farming he kept up friendly relations with his 
army friends. He was at the Barracks frequently. 
He called upon army men who were transient 
visitors in St. Louis. He had no false shame 
about his dress. General Beale recalled a meeting 
with Grant at the Planter's House. Beale was 
sitting outside on the pavement when Grant 
came along with a whip in his hand. He asked 
him what he was doing. Grant replied that he 
was "farming on a piece of land belonging to 
Mrs. Grant, some ten miles out in the country." 

43 



Grant, the Business Man 

While they were talking the dinner bell rang as 
was the custom even in the best St. Louis hotel 
in those days. Grant started to go but Beale said : 
"Come in and have dinner with me." 
"Well, I don't know," was Grant's reply. "I am 
not dressed for company." 

"That doesn't matter, come in," Beale urged. 
And Grant went in not at all abashed by the 
curious looks. 

General Coppee, who had been with Grant at 
West Point had an even more interesting exper- 
ience with him: "Grant, with his whip in his 
hand, once came to see me at the hotel where 
were Joseph J. Reynolds, then a professor, D. C. 
Buell and other officers. I remember that to our 
invitation to join us at the bar, he said : 'I will go 
and look at you; but I never drink anything 
myself.' " 

To these army friends who had known him at 
West Point, or when he was a lieutenant he was 
"Sam" Grant, the name they had bestowed upon 
him in cadet days. Boggs found that instead of 
the army acquaintance being of much value it 
was sometimes a drawback. Grant undertook 
the collection of rents. If he had a bill against 
somebody he had known in the army he might 
light his cigar and sit down for an afternoon's 
chat on old times, forgetting about the bill in his 
pocket. 

The partnership of Boggs & Grant made a 
fairly encouraging start, notwithstanding that 

44 



Grant, the Business Man 

the junior partner's chills continued through the 
spring months. On the suggestion of Colonel 
Dent, Boggs added money loaning to the busi- 
ness. He turned over the renting and collecting 
to Grant while he went East and made arrange- 
ment to handle a large sum of money for Phila- 
delphians. The interest then obtainable in St. 
Louis was about twice the prevailing rate in the 
Quaker city 

Mrs. Boggs, who had favored the partnership 
and who, as was the case with all other women, 
liked Grant, said: "He was always a gentleman 
and everybody loved him, he was so gentle and 
considerate. But really we did not see what he 
could do in the world." 

Occupying what had been a hall bedroom in 
the old residence where Boggs & Grant had their 
real estate office was a young law student. He 
had come over from Belleville and was permitted 
to read law books in the office of Sloss & Jones, 
sleeping in the office at night. For his meals the 
young man depended upon earnings as a "sub" in 
a newspaper office. He was destined to become 
the leading criminal lawyer of St. Louis and a 
prominent figure in politics but he didn't know 
it at that time. He was satisfied to be the cham- 
pion of the "Free Democrats," an organization 
of young St. Louisans. Between the captain and 
the law student developed a friendship. Each 
seems to have recognized in the other something 
that drew. ( Irant, when the reserve was broken, 

45 



Grant, the Business Man 

liked to talk of his Mexican campaign and also 
of politics. The young law student was an eager 
listener. The two spent much time together. 
There was another bond of interest between them. 
It had its origin in the cold weather. An old col- 
ored woman who cleaned the offices had a room 
in the rear. She wore a red bandana turban after 
the manner of oldtime slaves. Her husband, a 
grizzled and bent old fellow, had worked hard 
and purchased his freedom. He still drove a dray. 
The colored woman was more than a janitress. 
She took it upon herself to "mammy" her people. 
She was especially watchful over the student for 
he was no more than a boy, and also over the 
captain for the fever and chills still hung on, mak- 
ing him so weak sometimes that he had to be 
helped to the street cars when he started home. 
The old colored woman kept a pot of coffee on the 
stove cold days. "Come in, chile," she would say 
to the captain and the law student, "and get a 
cup of coffee before you go out." Ten years later, 
nearly, Charles P. Johnson, who had achieved 
fame in his profession and was one of the political 
leaders in St. Louis, went on to Washington to 
see the grand review after Appomattox. He 
called at the Grant residence to pay his respects 
to the lieutenant-general. The two looked at each 
other curiously. Grant said, "I think I know 
you. Weren't you a student of law in St. Louis ?" 
Johnson said : "You were in the real estate busi- 
ness on Pine street." "Well," said the lieutenant- 

4 6 



Grant, the Business Man 

general, "I am very glad to see you. Come and 
sit on the lounge and tell me something about the 
old crowd." Governor Johnson recalls the con- 
versation which followed: 

"For nearly an hour he talked with interest and 
animation about the various persons he had met 
in and around the old office on Pine street. The 
first question he asked, with apparent feeling, 
was about the old colored woman. And when I 
told him she had been gathered to her rest a year 
or two before, he expressed his sorrow and eulo- 
gized her for her many kind and amiable quali- 
ties. That old aunty had not only given us coffee 
in cold weather. She had sewed on buttons and 
mended clothes for us. Grant was a great smoker 
in those days on Pine street. He used both pipes 
and cigars. He would occasionally sit on the 
steps in front of his office during summer evenings 
and smoke and talk on various subjects. Right 
across the street was a cigar store kept by a thin, 
sharp visaged German whose complexion was 
yellow enough to remind one of a shriveled and 
dried up leaf of Virginia plant. He was good 
natured, quiet, talkative and afforded his cus- 
tomers a good deal of amusement by the novel 
manner in which he constructed sentences and 
pronounced the English language. Grant was a 
customer at the shop and keenly enjoyed a talk 
with him. The old German tobacconist was not 
forgotten in our talk at Washington. Grant 
laughed when referring to his humorous charac- 

47 



Grant, the Business Man 

teristics. From this he branched off into some 
recollections of his life in St. Louis, but resumed 
again as we parted his memories of the old aunty. 
During the entire conversation his mind seemed 
centered upon the recollections connected with 
the Pine street office and the characters to which 
I have alluded." 

Before the summer of 1859 was ended both 
Boggs and Grant realized that the firm was not 
getting enough business to support their families. 
"Our present business," Grant explained to his 
father, "is entirely overdone in this city, at least a 
dozen new houses having started about the time 
I commenced. I do not want to fly from one 
thing to another nor would I, but I am compelled 
to make a living from the start, for which I am 
willing to give all of my time and energy." This 
comes about as near a tone of discouragement as 
appears in any of Grant's letters of that period. 

The year 1859 was the ebb of Grant's fortunes. 
And yet in that year he did not sell, he emanci- 
pated the slave he had acquired from his father- 
in-law. He went into the St. Louis Circuit Court 
and filed the deed of freedom for William Jones. 
The paper was drawn up in the real estate office. 
The witnesses were McClelland and Hillyer, the 
lawyers with whom Grant had deskroom. "Grant 
did not seem to be just calculated for business," 
one of these lawyers said, "but a more honest, 
generous man never lived, I don't believe." 

While he was a business man in St. Louis Grant 

48 



Grant, the Business Man 

undertook to sell a horse for his brother Simpson 
who was carrying on the father's business at 
Galena. In October, 1859, he reported progress 
in this way: 

"I have been postponing writing to you, hoping 
to make a return for your horse, but as yet have 
received nothing for him. About two weeks ago 
a man spoke to me for him and said he would try 
him next day and, if he suited, give me $100 for 
him. I have not seen the man since; but one 
week ago last Saturday he went to the stable and 
got the horse, saddle and bridle, since which I 
have not seen man nor horse. From this I pre- 
sume he must like him. The man I understand 
lives in Florissant, about twelve miles from this 
city." 

Grant wrote about other matters. After sign- 
ing his name it occurred to him that he had better 
reassure Simpson about the horse. He added a 
postscript: 

"The man that has your horse is the owner of 
six three-story brick houses in this city, and the 
probabilities arc he intends to give me an order 
on his agent for the money when the rents are 
due." 

Among those with whom Grant consulted when 
he knew he must find something better than the 
real estate business was J. J. Reynolds, after- 
wards a general of fame. The two were class- 
mates at West Point. Reynolds had left the 
army three years previously and was professor of 

49 



Grant, the Business Man 

mechanics and of engineering in the faculty of 
Washington University, but recently organized. 
He suggested the possibility of appointment to 
the chair of mathematics. Nothing would have 
pleased Grant better at that time. Mathematics 
had been his favorite study at West Point. He 
had the mathematical turn of mind as was shown 
in his way of keeping accounts and even in his 
recreation, for he was fond of problems which 
required figuring. He had always believed he 
would like teaching. While he was a lieutenant 
on duty at Jefferson Barracks, within a year after 
graduation, he wrote to Professor Church, who 
had the chair of mathematics at the Academy, 
asking that he be designated as assistant when a 
detail was made. The custom was to detail young 
officers from the army as assistant professors. 
Church, remembering Grant's interest in mathe- 
matics while a cadet, answered encouragingly. 
Grant always believed he would have gone to 
West Point as assistant to Professor Church in a 
year or two if the Mexican war had not come 
on. "It was never my intention," he says in his 
Memoirs, "to remain in the army long, but to pre- 
pare myself for a professorship in some college." 
Upon the professorship of mathematics in 
Washington University Grant looked longingly 
but not hopefully as his correspondence written 
at the time makes plain. He did not believe it 
was within his reach and when the appointment 
of another was made he wrote: 

SO 



Grant j the Business Man 

"The Washington University, where the vacancy 
was to be filled, is one of the best endowed 
institutions in the United States and all the pro- 
fessorships are sought after by persons whose 
early advantages were the same as mine but who 
have been engaged in teaching all their mature 
years. Quimby, who was the best mathematician 
in my class and who was for several years an assist- 
ant at West Point, and for nine years a professor 
in an institution in New York, was an unsuccess- 
ful applicant. The appointment was given to the 
most distinguished man in his department, and 
an author. His name is Shorano." 

Grant wrote the name from hearsay. He had 
heard of Professor Chauvenet. 

This was in August, 1859. That same month 
Grant made formal application to the commis- 
sioners of St. Louis county for a position. In his 
letter he asked for the appointment of county 
engineer. Technically the place was that of 
county superintendent of roads. The salary was 
$1,500. With his application Grant filed a peti- 
tion headed by Thomas E. Tutt and signed by 
thirty well-known and substantial citizens. He 
wrote to the commissioners: 

"I beg leave to submit myself as an applicant 
for county engineer, should the office be rendered 
vacant, and at the same time to submit the names 
of a few citizens who have been kind enough to 
recommend me for the office. I have made no 
effort to get a large number of names, nor the 

Si 



Grant, the Business Man 

names of persons with whom I am not personally 
acquainted. I enclose herewith also a statement 
from Professor Reynolds, who was a classmate of 
mine at West Point, as to qualifications. Should 
your honorable body see proper to give me the 
appointment, I pledge myself to give the office 
my entire attention and shall hope to give general 
satisfaction." 

Could it have been put better? The accom- 
panying indorsement by Professor Reynolds read : 

"Captain U. S. Grant was a member of the class 
at the Military Academy which graduated in 
1843. He always maintained a high standing, 
and graduated with great credit, especially in 
mathematics and engineering. From my personal 
knowledge of his capacity and acquirements, as 
well as of his strict integrity and unremitting 
industry, I consider him in an eminent degree 
qualified for the office of county engineer." 

On the same sheet of paper with Professor 
Reynolds' statement was another indorsement, 
remarkable in view of subsequent events. It was 
from D. M. Frost who commanded at Camp 
Jackson and who afterwards joined the Confed- 
eracy. Frost wrote in Grant's behalf: 

"I was for three years in the corps of cadets at 
West Point with Captain Grant, and served with 
him for some eight or nine years in the army, and 
can fully indorse the foregoing statement of 
Professor Reynolds." 

Under the procedure the application was 

52 



Grant, the Business Man 

referred to the commissioner in whose district the 
applicant lived for a report upon it. That com- 
missioner was Dr. William Taussig of Carondelet. 
Dr. Taussig had been mayor of Carondelet and 
had taken an active part opposing a land claim 
which old Colonel Dent was pressing against a 
considerable section of the city. He also attended 
the children of Grant while Mrs. Grant was with 
her relative, Mrs. Barnard, who lived in Caronde- 
let. This professional service was rendered while 
Grant was in California. In his recollections, 
preserved by the Missouri Historical Society, 
Dr. Taussig says: 

"Though we saw each other often and knew each 
other very well, as men in small communities do 
even when there is no occasion for personal con- 
tact, I never had occasion beyond bowing, to 
speak to General Grant until after he was Presi- 
dent. I saw him frequently haul many of the 
now historic carts of cord wood for sale in 
St. Louis past my home and office. There was a 
blacksmith shop opposite me and I can see him 
now as he then appeared, sitting on a log in 
front of the shop — a serious dignified man, with 
slouched hat, high boots, and trousers tucked in, 
smoking a clay pipe and waiting for his horses to 
be shod. 

"Nor did I ever set foot on the Dent farm, 
although all of the neighbors around it were my 
close friends, with whom I frequently visited. 
The old gentleman did not feel kindly toward me 

53 



Grant, the Business Man 

on account of the land suit and because I was 
a pronounced Republican and Union man. I 
always at that time had the impression that this 
feeling — meaning the political one — had been 
shared by Grant. In this, as events have shown, 
I was mistaken. 

"The only member of the Grant family with 
whom I was intimate was William Barnard whose 
wife was a relative of Mrs. Grant. Barnard was 
a wholesale druggist, an amiable, jovial man, very 
fond of hunting, and his yard and garden were 
filled with wooden and cast-iron effigies of stags, 
deer and hunting dogs. He was too fond of good 
living to succeed in business, and failed early 
during the war. Grant, during his Presidency, 
made him bank examiner for Missouri under the 
national banking law. 

"At the Barnard home I met Mrs. Grant fre- 
quently when she made some of her prolonged 
visits to her relative, and occasionally was called 
to attend her children. Both Mrs. Grant and 
Mrs. Barnard were charming, cultivated ladies, 
devoted to their husbands and children. A family 
physician gets to hear much that is kept from 
the general public, and the, to say the least, 
dependent position which Grant occupied in the 
house of his father-in-law was frequently com- 
mented upon in my presence. " 

With this explanation of his relations to the 
Grant and Dent families, Dr. Taussig leads up to 
the explanation of Grant's failure to receive the 

54 



Grant, the Business Man 

appointment of superintendent of county roads. 
He says: 
"It stands in evidence of Grant's dignified pride 
that, hard pressed as he was at the time, he never 
called either on me or on any one of my colleagues 
in support of his application. Many strong letters 
from prominent people of both parties, recom- 
mending him, came to me. My old and lifelong 
friend, Henry T. Blow, an ardent Union man, 
urged me personally to recommend and support 
Grant for the position. Much stress was laid on 
his needs, his character and qualifications not 
being questioned. It was a perplexing position 
for me. Everybody knows how portentously 
already the clouds of disunion darkened the poli- 
tical horizon of the country in the latter part of 
1859. Then, already, in St. Louis, the disloyal 
'minute men' on the one side, and the loyal 
'wide awakes' on the other, were closing ranks, 
and every issue, social or political, was decided or 
acted upon as it affected this all-absorbing ques- 
tion. The Dents, at least the old gentleman, were 
known to be pro-slavery Democrats, and to use 
the harsh language of that period, outspoken 
rebels. Grant lived with them, and though noth- 
ing was known of his political views, the shadow 
of their disloyalty necessarily fell upon him. We 
felt bound, foreseeing events to come, to surround 
ourselves with officers whose loyalty to the Union 
was unquestioned. Our court consisted of John 
H. Lightner, Benjamin Farrar, Col. Alton R. 

55 



Grant, the Business Man 

Easton, Peregrine Tibbets and myself. Easton 
and Tibbets were Democrats. Col. Easton was 
a Union Democrat, an ex-officer of the Mexican 
war and had known Grant. Tibbets, a most ex- 
cellent gentleman, was a pro-slavery Democrat. 
I made my report adverse to Grant verbally." 

By a divided vote the commissioners elected 
Mr. Salomon, brother of Salomon, the war gover- 
nor of Wisconsin. Grant, in his Memoirs, says: 
"My opponent had the advantage of birth over 
me — he was a citizen by adoption — and carried 
off the prize." This was a bit of sarcasm on the 
part of Grant. That he understood the other and 
real explanation of his defeat is apparent from 
his correspondence with his father at the time. 
In August, when the appointment was pending, 
he wrote that the board of commissioners was 
composed of three free soilers and two opposed, 
adding: "Although friends who are recommend- 
ing me are the very best citizens of this place and 
members of all parties, I fear they will make 
strictly party nominations for all the offices under 
their control." But a more significant and im- 
portant letter was sent by Grant after the 
appointment of Salomon. In it he defined his 
political status. The letter was written in Sep- 
tember, 1859. Grant said: 
"The Democratic commissioners voted for me 
and the Free Soilers against me. You may judge 
from the result of the action of the county com- 
missioners that I am strongly identified with the 

S 6 



Grant, the Business Man 

Democratic party. Such is not the case. I never 
voted an out-and-out Democratic ticket in my 
life. I voted for Buchanan for President to de- 
feat Fremont, but not because he was my first 
choice. In all other elections, I have universally 
selected the candidates that, in my estimation, 
were the best fitted for the different offices, and it 
never happens that such men are all arrayed on 
one side. The strongest friend I had on the board 
of commissioners is a Free Soiler, but opposition 
between parties is so strong that he would not 
vote for anyone, no matter how friendly, unless at 
least one of his own party would go with him." 

Grant voted for Buchanan in 1856. He had 
been to the city with a load of wood. On the way 
back to the farm he passed the country polling 
place and went on as if not intending to stop. 
But before driving far, he turned his team to a 
tree, tied the horses, went back and voted. It is 
tradition in the neighborhood that Grant then 
remarked he was "voting against Fremont." At 
the same time, however, he voted for Henry C. 
Wright, who was on the other side. Wright was 
running for the legislature. He was a Whig. 
He was the miller to whose place Grant went 
nearly every week with a bag of grain to be 
ground. After casting his ballot, Grant turned 
to Wright who was at the polling place and said: 
"Mr. Wright, I have voted for you today, not on 
the ground of politics, for I am a Democrat, but be- 
cause I think you are the best man for the place." 

57 



Grant, the Business Man 

Grant's comment in his Memoirs that his oppo- 
nent had the advantage of birth over him was not 
wholly a pleasantry, although he realized that 
politics was the main issue. In his letter to his 
father Grant wrote: "There is, I believe, but one 
paying office in the county held by an American, 
unless you except the office of sheriff, which is 
held by a Frenchman who speaks little English, 
but was born here." 

F. W. Mathias recalled that after the defeat 
for the office of superintendent of county roads, 
Grant remarked to a friend one day: "No Ameri- 
can can get anything in this town." While he 
was on the farm Grant joined a Native American 
lodge. But he attended only one meeting. The 
Native Americans were very strong in St. Louis 
at that time. They were called Know Nothings, 
from that provision in the sworn ritual which 
required a member when asked by an outsider 
about the principles and purposes of the order to 
answer, "I know nothing." 

Grant's ill success with the county commis- 
sioners in October did not deter him from making 
a second effort. In the archives of the Missouri 
Historical Society is the original of this letter: 

St. Louis, Feb. 13, i860. 
Hon. J. H. Lightner, 

Pres. Board of County Commissioners. 

Sir: Should the office of County Engineer be 
vacated by the will of your honorable body, I 

58 



Grant, the Business Man 

would respectfully renew the application made 
by me in August last for that appointment. I 
would also, by leave, refer to the application and 
recommendations then submitted and now on 
file with your board. I am sir, 

Respectfully your obt. svt., 

U. S. Grant. 

In October, after the county commissioners 
had acted adversely on his application, Grant 
wrote home that his name had been forwarded 
for the appointment of superintendent of the cus- 
tom house. "I am still unemployed," he said, 
"but expect to have a place in the custom house 
from the first of next month." He explained that 
if he was not appointed superintendent he was to 
get a desk as clerk in the custom house. He did 
receive the clerkship, but it lasted only about a 
month. 

When nothing came of his second application 
to the county commissioners in February, i860, 
Grant decided to go to Galena where his brothers, 
Simpson and Orville, were running their father's 
leather store. Most of Grant's biographers have 
held to the view that Grant was given the clerk- 
ship in the Galena store as a matter of charity on 
the part of the rest of the family. The fact was 
that the father, Jesse Root Grant, was planning 
to establish his three sons in business by turning 
over to them this leather store. Grant went up 
to Galena in 1856 and visited his brothers, but 

59 



Grant, the Business Man 

was not ready to join them. He preferred the 
Hardscrabble farm. Jesse Root Grant was a man 
of original ideas. He had accumulated a good 
fortune for that period. He had three sons and 
three daughters and he proposed to make the 
sons independent with their own help. For years 
he had been announcing his intention to retire 
from active business when he was sixty. His 
plan, in i860, as described by Frederick Dent 
Grant, was very different from that told by the 
biographers and historical novelists. It was 
this: 
"My grandfather, Jesse R. Grant, was then 
living in Covington, Ky. He owned tanneries at 
Portsmouth on the Ohio river, had a large leather 
store at Galena, in Illinois; a branch store at 
LaCrosse, in Wisconsin, and, I think, another 
store somewhere in Iowa. My Missouri grand- 
father — and he owned an estate of many hun- 
dreds of acres himself — thought my Ohio or 
Kentucky grandfather a rich man. 'Old Mr. 
Grant,' I once heard him say, 'must be worth 
$150,000.' Anyway my Grandfather Grant was 
advancing in years and wanted to distribute his 
property. It was arranged that my father and 
his two brothers should manage the tanneries and 
stores, each to be paid $60 a month for his 
services, and place the profits of the business in 
a trust fund for their three sisters. When the 
accumulated profits amounted to the value of the 
tanneries and stores the brothers were to have 

60 



Grant, the Business Man 

the physical property and the sisters the income 
from the money in trust. We moved to Galena 
and took a good house. I recall that I was dis- 
gusted because I couldn't go barefooted like 
other boys and that instead of a hickory shirt and 
one suspender I had to wear a waist which I but- 
toned to my short trousers. The store building 
in Galena was four stories high, and was packed 
with goods. Behind it was the harness factory 
which extended to the next street. There was 
also a large stock of carriage hardware. Father 
has said that he was a clerk in those days, but he 
was much more; in time he would have been a 
partner in the business. I recollect that his salary 
of $60 a month was less than he really required, 
and that several gifts of money to my mother 
from her family in St. Louis helped him consid- 
erably. The largest, I think, was about $100. 
Grandfather Grant was at no time a liberal man. 
We lived in Galena eleven months and then my 
father went away to the war. He talked rather 
freely in the family as soon as it was known that 
Lincoln had been elected, and he predicted that 
some of the Southern states would secede. The 
Dents in St. Louis were rebels. He wrote to 
them, expressing his sympathy, regretting the 
coming conflict, but telling them that the South 
would be whipped. In the evening of the day on 
which Lincoln made his first call for troops, a 
public meeting was held in Galena, at which 
father presided. He never went to the leather 

61 



Grant, the Business Man 

store after that meeting to put up a package or 
do any other business." 

Grant went to Galena in May, i860, and joined 
his two brothers in the management of the store, 
accepting his father's plan. As he was less famil- 
iar with the business than the others he took 
what might be considered a subordinate position 
so far as duties were concerned. He continued in 
the store eleven months and then joined the army. 
The war interfered with the plan of partnership. 
In 1866 Jesse Root Grant was ready to distribute 
a considerable part of his estate, about #100,000, 
among his children. General Grant refused to 
take his share saying he had helped to make none 
of his father's wealth. The general's children 
were given #1000 each by their grandfather. 



62 



Grant, the General 



Gravity the General 

From Galena Grant wrote a remarkable letter 
to his father-in-law in St. Louis. It was the day 
after he had presided at a meeting in April, 1861, 
to raise a company of volunteers for the war. 
Grant realized that he was going into service. 
He had said as much in a letter to his father. He 
was face to face with the question of what Mrs. 
Grant and the four children should do, and he 
proceeded to put the situation before "the old 
gentleman" as he called Airs. Grant's father: 

"All party distinction should be lost sight of, and 
every true patriot be for maintaining the glorious 
stars and stripes, the constitution and the Union. 
The North is responding to the President's call in 
such a manner that the Confederates may truly 
quake. I tell you there is no mistaking the feel- 
ings of the people. The government can call into 
the field 75,000 troops and ten and twenty times 
75,000 if it should be necessary, and find the 
means of maintaining them, too. It is all a mis- 
take about the northern pocket being so sensitive. 
In times like the present no people are more ready 
to give of their time or of their abundant means. 

"No impartial man can conceal from himself the 
fact, that in all these troubles the Southerners 
have been the aggressors, and the administration 
has stood purely on the defensive, more on the 
defensive than she would have dared to have 
done, but for her consciousness of right prevailing 
in the end. 

"The news today is that Virginia has gone out of 

6S 



Grant, the General 

the Union. But for the influence she will have on 
the border states, this is not much to be regretted. 
Her position, or rather that of eastern Virginia 
has been more reprehensible from the beginning 
than that of South Carolina. She should be made 
to bear a heavy portion of the burden of the war 
for her guilt. 

"In all this I can see but the doom of slavery. 
The Northerners do not want, nor will they want, 
to interfere with the institution, but they will 
refuse for all time to give it protection unless the 
Southerners shall return soon to their allegiance; 
and then, too, this disturbance will give such an 
impetus to the production of their staple — cotton 
— in other parts of the world that they can never 
recover the control of the market again for that 
commodity. This will reduce the value of the 
negroes so much that they will never be worth 
fighting over again." 

To these general expressions which were well 
calculated to show Colonel Dent where he stood, 
Grant added a piece of family news: 

"I have just received a letter from Fred. He 
breathes with the most patriotic sentiments. He 
is for the old flag as long as there is a union of two 
states fighting under its banner, and when they 
dissolve he will go it alone. This is not his lan- 
guage but it is the idea not so well expressed as he 
expresses it. Julia and the children are all well 
and join me in love to you." 

Fred was Frederick T. Dent, Grant's classmate 

66 



Grant, the General 

at West Point. He had gone to the Pacific Coast 
some years before. The elder Dent was not only 
a slave owner but he was in sympathy with the 
southern doctrine, not passively but very aggres- 
sively. He had participated in the councils of 
the secessionists at St. Louis. This letter was 
dated the 19th of April. It served as an intro- 
duction for a visit Grant made to St. Louis a few 
days later. With W. D. W. Barnard, his wife's 
relative, Grant went out to the farm and saw 
Colonel Dent. There was a family council as to 
where Mrs. Grant and the children had better 
stay while the husband and father was in the 
field. It ended in this terse decision by the old 
fire-eater: "Send Julia and the children here. As 
you make your bed so you must lie." Colonel 
Dent lived to see his son-in-law President. He 
died in the White House. 

All that Colonel Dent said has not been quoted 
in the foregoing. The old slaveholder added: 
"You were educated in the army, and it's your 
most natural way to support your family. Go 
into it and rise as high as you can, but if your 
troops ever come to this side of the river 1 will 
shoot them." 

On the tenth of Ma}', 1861, Grant was in St. 
Louis. He had not then received a commission 
but was mustering Illinois regiments. One of these 
regiments was to rendezvous at Belleville. When 
Grant arrived there only two companies had re- 
ported. It was not probable that the others would 

67 



Grant, the General 

be in camp for five days. Grant came over to 
St. Louis. He had not been in the city long until 
he heard it "whispered that Lyon intended to 
break up Camp Jackson and capture the militia." 
He went down to the arsenal to see the troops 
start for Camp Jackson. Lyon he had known at 
West Point and also in the army. Blair he had 
heard speak in the campaign of 1858, but had 
never met him. As the troops marched out of the 
arsenal, Blair was on his horse forming them. 
Grant introduced himself to Blair and had a few 
moments conversation with him "and expressed 
my sympathy with his purpose." Until late in 
the day Grant was a looker on, but before night 
he became an active participant. In his Memoirs 
he says : 
"Up to this time the enemies of the Government 
in St. Louis had been bold and defiant, while the 
Union men were quiet but determined. The ene- 
mies had their headquarters in a central and pub- 
lic position on Pine street near Fifth. The Union 
men had a place of meeting somewhere in the 
city. I did not know where, and I doubt whether 
they dared to enrage the enemies of the govern- 
ment by placing the national flag outside of their 
headquarters. As soon as the news of the capture 
of Camp Jackson reached the city, the condition 
of affairs was changed. Union men became ram- 
pant, aggressive, and, if you will, intolerant. 
They proclaimed their sentiments boldly, and 
were impatient of anything like disrespect for the 

68 



Grant, the General 

Union. The secessionists became quiet but were 
filled with suppressed rage. They had been play- 
ing the bully. The Union men ordered the rebel 
flag taken down from the building on Pine street. 
The command was given in tones of authority, 
and it was taken down never to be raised again in 
St. Louis. 
"I witnessed the scene. I had heard of the sur- 
render of the camp and that the garrison was on 
its way to the arsenal. I had seen the troops start 
out in the morning and had wished them success. 
I now determined to go to the arsenal and await 
their arrival, and congratulate them. I stepped 
on a car standing at the corner of Fourth and 
Pine streets, and saw a crowd of people standing 
quietly in front of the headquarters, who were 
there for the purpose of hauling down the flag. 
There were squads of other people at intervals 
down the street. They too, were quiet but filled 
with suppressed rage, and muttered their resent- 
ment at the insult to what they called 'their' flag. 
Before the car I was in had started, a dapper 
lktle fellow — he would be called a dude at this 
day — stepped in. He was in a great state of ex- 
citement and used adjectives freely to express his 
contempt for the Union and for those who had 
just perpetrated such an outrage upon the rights 
of a free people. There was only one other pas- 
senger in the car besides myself when this young 
man entered. He evidently expected to find 
nothing but sympathy when he got away from 

6 9 



Grant, the General 

the 'mudsills' engaged in compelling a 'free peo- 
ple' to pull down a flag they adored. He turned 
to me saying: 'Things have come to a — pretty 
pass when a free people can't choose their own 
flag. Where I came from if a man dares to say 
a word for the Union we hang him to a limb of 
the first tree we come to.' I replied that 'after 
all we were not so intolerant in St. Louis as we 
might be; I had not seen a single rebel hung yet, 
nor heard of one; there were plenty of them who 
ought to be, however.' The young man subsided. 
He was so crestfallen that I believe if I had 
ordered him to leave the car he would have gone 
quietly out." 

Grant went back to Illinois the next day to re- 
sume his mustering duties. If he had gone out to 
Camp Jackson to see the actual capture he would 
have found Sherman there among the lookers on. 
John M. Schofield was a major with one of the 
Union regiments that marched from the arsenal. 
These three men were to fill the office of lieuten- 
ant-general of the regular army. One of the 
regiments that day was commanded by Colonel 
Salomon, the man who had defeated Grant for 
the appointment of superintendent of county 
roads two years before. Salomon afterwards 
became colonel of artillery and died of wounds 
received in battle. 
"Colonel Grant moves against Harris" was the 
headline in a St. Louis paper one July morning 
in 1861. It gave St. Louisans the first news of 

70 



Grant, the General 

"the captain" since his appearance on Fifth street 
Camp Jackson day. Grant had been made colonel 
of the Twenty-first Illinois. He marched out of 
Springfield on the morning of the 3rd of July 
without waiting for railroad transportation. He 
was on his way to Northeast Missouri, where 
bodies of southern sympathizers were stopping 
railroad traffic and preparing to join Price. 
Grant moved against Harris. "Tom Harris" he 
was called. He was a popular leader and had 
assembled a considerable body of Missourians in 
camp near the old Missouri town of Florida. A 
battle between Illinoisans and Missourians was 
expected by everybody. Grant's orders were to 
attack. He says: 

"As we approached the brow of the hill from 
which it was expected we could see Harris' camp, 
and possibly find his men ready formed to meet 
us, my heart kept getting higher and higher until 
it felt to me as though it was in my throat. I 
would have given anything then to have been 
back in Illinois, but I had not the moral courage 
to halt and consider what to do; I kept right on. 
When we reached a point from which the valley 
below was in full view I halted. The place where 
Harris had been encamped a few days before was 
still there and the marks of a recent encampment 
were plainly visible, but the troops were gone. 
My heart resumed its place. It occurred to me at 
once that Harris had been as much afraid of me 

as I had been of him. This was a view of the 

7i 



Grant, the General 

question I had never taken before; but it was one 
I never forgot afterwards. From that event to 
the close of the war I never experienced trepi- 
dation upon confronting an enemy, although I 
always felt more or less anxiety. I never forgot 
that he had as much reason to fear my forces as I 
had his. The lesson was valuable." 

Conditions improved rapidly in northeastern 
Missouri. Grant made headquarters at Mexico. 
Several regiments reported to him although he 
was then only a colonel. About the end of July 
Grant came back to camp from a short absence 
to find the Twenty-first drawn up in line and to 
hear a mighty cheer for "General Grant." In 
his tent was a telegram from Congressman Wash- 
burne addressed to Brigadier-General Grant. 
The message read: "You have this day been 
appointed brigadier-general of volunteers. Accept 
congratulations." 

On the 7th of August old acquaintances in St. 
Louis were shaking hands with "General Grant." 
For several weeks Grant was in and out of St. 
Louis, taking orders from Fremont. He wasn't 
the same man who had gone away from St. Louis 
in the spring of i860, leaving a number of un- 
settled accounts at stores. On one of the earliest 
of his official visits to St. Louis, he went from 
store to store and paid all of the bills. He knew 
just how much was due at each place. He 
selected as a staff officer W. C. Hillyer, the young 
lawyer of the firm of McClelland, Hillyer and 

72 



Grant, the General 

Moody, where he had occupied deskroom with 
Boggs. With Hillyer he had discussed politics 
much during the dull days of 1859. Law business 
was slow and Hillyer had gone into partnership 
with William Truesdail, afterwards chief of the 
secret service with the Army of the Cumberland. 
They had taken a contract to supply beef to the 
commissary department, when Hillyer received a 
telegram from Grant to meet him at the Planter's 
House. This is what took place: 

"Come Hillyer, here's your horse all ready. I 
have kept a steamer waiting for you three hours. 
I am going to Cape Girardeau, and want you to 
go with me on my staff." 

"Why, I haven't enlisted." 

"No matter for that; you can enlist on the way." 

"But I've got no clothes, and no money; my wife 
expects me home to tea, and my business needs 
attending to." 

"Well, I owe you fifty dollars, and here it is — 
that will do for money. As for clothes, I guess 
we have enough among us to supply you. We're 
ordered to the field and expect a fight with 
Jeff" Thompson. If you survive it I'll give you 
leave of absence to come home and settle your 
business." 

"But I've just taken a beef contract. I can't 
keep that and be on your staff." 

"That's a fact; so you had better give that up 
and come along." 

Hillyer turned over the contract and went down 

73 



Grant, the General 

the river. The conversation illustrates the change 
which had come over Grant. On the way to the 
Cape, Hillyer asked for details. He wanted to 
know what his rank was to be and whether a com- 
mission had been issued to him. 
"Well, not exactly," was Grant's reply, "but 
Fremont, who has authority from the Govern- 
ment promises me he will appoint you. Of course 
I shall get you the best rank I can. For the 
present we will call you captain." 

Grant was in St. Louis after the capture of 
Fort Donelson. He came for consultation on the 
campaign but he took time to call upon old 
friends. Among these was Henry T. Blow, then a 
member of Congress. Mr. Blow had been one of 
Grant's most active supporters when he applied 
for the position of county superintendent of roads. 
The conversation naturally turned upon that 
unsuccessful candidacy. Blow lived inCarondelet. 
Dr. Taussig's residence was near. Grant said to 
Blow, who had been much disappointed because 
the doctor would not vote for the captain: "I 
wish you would tell Dr. Taussig that I feel much 
indebted to him for having voted against me when 
I applied for the position of road superintendent. 
Had he supported me I might be in that obscure 
position today instead of being major-general." 
Mr. Blow called upon Dr. Taussig a few days 
later and delivered the message. 

In his recollections given to the Missouri His- 
torical Society, Dr. Taussig said: "I was driving 

74 



Grant, the General 

with John Fenton Long, who was then occupying 
the position of road superintendent that Grant 
had applied for, a near neighbor of Dent's and 
one of the most devoted friends of Grant, under 
whom he afterwards occupied several high offices, 
when, at a cross-roads, we met Colonel Dent, 
and, stopping, engaged in conversation. Long 
mentioned the famous victory that Grant had 
accomplished at Fort Donelson, when Dent, 
interrupting him angrily, said : 'Don't talk to me 
about this Federal son-in-law of mine. There 
shall always be a plate on my table for Julia, but 
none for him.' " 

The bark of the father-in-law was a good deal 
worse than his bite. To be consistent in his posi- 
tion as a southern sympathizer Colonel Dent con- 
tinued to inveigh against his "Federal son-in-law" 
but at heart he was proud of Grant from his earl- 
iest successes. On the 23rd of January, 1862, 
Grant was in St. Louis on military business. He 
rode out to the Gravois farm to see the colonel. 
The family had not as yet arrived from Galena. 
Dent received the brigadier with a hearty wel- 
come. Some of the thirty slaves had already 
taken French leave. It was as Grant had told the 
colonel, "Slavery is doomed." Dent at once gave 
orders to one of the faithful servants who re- 
mained with him to kill a turkey and get up the 
best dinner White Haven afforded. Then he sat 
down for a long talk and made Grant tell him all 
about the battle of Belmont. 

75 



Grant, the General 

When Grant began to win victories the lawyers 
with whom he had his real estate office remem- 
bered his inclination to talk about battles. They 
recalled that they had smiled when Grant read and 
analyzed the newspaper accounts of the war with 
which Italy was involved at that time. Grant 
would discuss the military movements, saying, 
"This movement was a mistake. If I had com- 
manded the army I would have done thus and so." 

Two years later Grant took one of those lawyers 
to be a member of his stafT when he was promoted 
from colonel to brigadier. He appointed another 
lawyer from Galena, Rawlins, and a young volun- 
teer officer from the Twenty-first Illinois, his first 
command. These three civilians thus hurried 
into the profession of arms, set about learning 
the science of war as soon as possible. They dis- 
cussed Jomini. Encountering a proposition which 
stumped them, they went to Grant for an opin- 
ion. The brigadier-general said : "The art of war 
is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. 
Get at him as soon as you can and as often as you 
can, and keep moving on." 

Unexpectedly Major-General Grant arrived in 
St. Louis on the 26th of January, 1864. The next 
day a letter, largely signed, was addressed to him. 
It invited him to a public dinner. The news- 
paper account said: "If there had been time 
every citizen of St. Louis would unquestionably 
have attached his name to the letter." This 
account is from the Democratic paper. The invi- 

76 



Grant, the General 

tation breathed the purpose to show Grant what 
his fellow citizens of St. Louis felt that they owed 
him. It said: 

"As citizens of Missouri they can never forget 
the promptness and skill with which you aided in 
defending the State at the beginning of the con- 
flict when the means at the command of those in 
authority were wholly inadequate to the great 
work committed to them." 

Grant replied at once to the invitation, explain- 
ing the domestic reason for his presence in the 
city. The fact was that Fred, the oldest son, had 
been desperately ill with pneumonia when the 
general was summoned home: 

"Your highly complimentary invitation 'to meet 
old acquaintances and to make new ones' at a 
dinner to be given by citizens of St. Louis is just 
received. I will state that I have only visited 
St. Louis on this occasion to see a sick child. 
Finding, however, that he has passed the crisis of 
his disease and is pronounced out of danger by 
his physician, I accept the invitation. My stay 
in the city will be short, probably not beyond the 
ist proximo. On tomorrow I shall be engaged. 
Any other day of my stay here, and any place 
selected by the citizens of St. Louis, will be agree- 
able for me to meet them." 

The dinner was given in the Lindell hotel, 
which at that time had not been long in operation 
and which was the pride of the city. A reception 
in the parlors preceded the dinner. According to 

77 



Grant, the General 

the press report Grant "received all with a quiet, 
modest courtesy characteristic of the man, recog- 
nizing old friends and acquaintances with unfail- 
ing recollection and friendly greeting." The same 
report mentions that at the guest tables were 
two major-generals and seven brigadier-generals. 
After the three hundred guests had filed into the 
banquet room, prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. 
Eliot, the head of Washington University, toward 
the faculty of which Grant had looked longingly 
in 1859. Prayer on such an occasion was strictly 
in accordance with Grant's ideas of propriety. 
When he led his rather boisterous Twenty-first 
Illinois into Northwest Missouri, he said to the 
chaplain of his regiment: "Chaplain, when I was 
at home and ministers were stopping at my house, 
I always invited them to ask a blessing at the 
table. I suppose a blessing is as much needed 
here as at home, and if it is agreeable with your 
views, I should be glad to have you' ask a bless- 
ing every time we sit down to eat." 

Judge Samuel Treat presided at the dinner. 
Grant was introduced as our distinguished guest 
by Major William W. Dunn. When he arose "a 
tumultuous shout of welcome went up." This is 
the newspaper report of the general's speech. 

"General Grant : 'In response it will be impossible 
for me to do more than thank you.' (Enthusiastic 
applause.)" 

The city council voted formally the thanks of 
the municipality and this, signed by Mayor 

78 



Grant, the General 

Chauncey I. Filley, was read at the banquet. 
Governor Yates, who had given Grant his first 
military appointment, sent a telegram : "He is the 
hero who never lost a battle." The festivities 
lasted until midnight. Orator after orator spoke 
of Grant's seventeen victories won up to that 
time. Seated among the guests was a grim, old, 
white-haired man who had said two years before: 
"There shall always be a plate on my table for 
Julia, but none for him." 

This visit of Grant to St. Louis was of less than 
a week. One day the general passed two hours at 
the City University where two of his sons were 
students under President Edward Wyman. He 
went through the institution which then had an 
attendance of three hundred. "Yet among all 
those youths," wrote the reporter, "not one wore 
an air more modest, unpretending and uncon- 
scious than that which marked General Grant, 
though famed and successful to the highest degree 
and charged with the gravest military responsi- 
bilities resting upon the shoulders of any general 
in the armies of the Union." 

Who is this man who has won seventeen vic- 
tories in the West, who now receives the revived 
rank of lieutenant-general, and who comes to 
Washington to take command of all of the armies 
of the Union? The country was asking in the 
winter of 1864. St. Louis papers undertook to 
answer. One of them, Democratic, printed what 
it claimed was an "authentic biographical sketch" 

79 



Grant, the General 

by "an intimate, personal friend of Lieutenant- 
General Grant." This intimate personal friend 
said: 

"At the age of twelve he aspired to the manage- 
ment of his father's draught team and was 
entrusted with it for the purpose of hauling some 
heavy hewed logs, which were to be loaded with 
the aid of levers and the usual appliances of sev- 
eral stout men. He came with his team and found 
the logs but not the men. A boy of more imagina- 
tive genius, and of equal but differently directed 
contrivance, might have laid down to listen or 
dream, or build houses of chips. Not so this boy, 
who, unlike others, acted upon the idea that 
where there was a will there was a way, and hesi- 
tated not at the undertaking. Observing a fallen 
tree having a gradual upward slope, he unhitched 
his horses, attached them to a log, drew one end 
of it up the inclined trunk higher than the wagon 
track and so as to project a few feet over, and 
thus continued to operate until he had brought 
several to this position. Next he backed the 
wagon under the projecting ends, and finally, one 
by one, hitched to and drew the logs lengthwise 
across the fallen trunk on to his wagon, hitched 
up again and returned with his load to his aston- 
ished father. 

"This anecdote is well remembered by old citi- 
zens of Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio, where 
Grant spent his early boyhood. This incident 
being similar to many others will not admit of any 

80 



Grant, the General 

interpretation other than evidencing an original 
and uncommon power of adapting measures to 
conditions. And if, as indeed we think is the 
plain truth, the true definition of public agent is 
that he is better than other men only in applying 
public means to public ends we should not be sur- 
prised at the brilliant results of Grant's cam- 
paigns, signalized as they are by a boldness, a 
strategy and comprehensiveness of thought and 
execution which stamps the character of a great 
captain. If we never admitted these qualities in 
the man before, it was because circumstances did 
not call them into exercise. 
"Grant, like his mother before him, never jokes 
and rarely ever laughs. He never uses a profane 
or indecent word, abhors dispute, and had never 
had a personal controversy in his life with boy 
or man; never made a speech, led a faction, or 
engaged in idle sport; never sad, he is never gay; 
always cordial and cheerful, yet always reserved. 
If he cannot be perfectly sincere, he is perfectly 
silent. Tolerant, yet enthusiastic, he is always 
moderate, always earnest. He seems destitute of 
ostentation, and totally unqualified to display 
himself even to gratify reasonable curiosity, yet 
is not ashamed of himself, and appears to con- 
template his early and his late career with equal 
and with simple satisfaction. In a word, there 
appears nothing of him that is not sterling." 

Thus heralded, Grant went East to take com- 
mand of all of the Union armies. 

81 



Grant, the General 

In the National Republican convention of 1864 
the Missouri delegation voted on the first roll call 
for Ulysses S. Grant for President. Every other 
delegation voted for Lincoln. At the close of the 
roll call, before the announcement of the tellers, 
the Missouri delegation changed to Lincoln and 
made his renomination unanimous. Grant had 
no political aspirations at that time. When one 
of his friends suggested that his war reputation 
could be turned to account if he would become a 
candidate for office, he replied: "I am not a can- 
didate for any office, but I would like to be mayor 
of Galena long enough to fix the sidewalks, 
especially the one reaching my house." 

Grant did all he could to induce the Missourians 
not to vote for him in the convention of 1864. 
He had no thought at that time of ever being a 
candidate for President. His often avowed am- 
bition was to finish the war and retire to his 
St. Louis farm. But the instructions of the Mis- 
souri state convention to the delegates were to 
"cast their twenty-two votes for Ulysses S. 
Grant." After the general had exerted all of his 
powers of persuasion to prevent the mention of 
his name in the convention, the Missourians com- 
promised by having their chairman, John F. 
Hume, cast the vote of the state on the roll call 
for Grant and then change to Lincoln before the 
ballot was announced. 



82 



Granfs Habits 



Grant's Habits 

The charge that Grant was a dissipated man 
got into circulation very early in the war. Before 
Grant was out of Missouri, in 1 86 1, there occurred 
a small clash of authority between General Ben 
M. Prentiss and him. Prentiss thought he was the 
senior brigadier-general, but the record showed 
that Grant's commission had been given an ear- 
lier date. Fremont placed Grant over Prentiss 
in the operations of Southeast Missouri. Pren- 
tiss came up to St. Louis. Albert D. Richardson, 
the correspondent of the New York Tribune, met 
him and expressed surprise to see him in the city. 
Prentiss replied: "Yes, I have left. I will not 
serve under a drunkard." 

Richardson was with Grant's army much of the 
time as the campaigning went on down the Mis- 
sissippi. He summed up his observations on the 
general's habits: 

"On a very few occasions after re-entering the 
service, the General was perceptibly under the 
influence of liquor — solely from his extreme sus- 
ceptibility to it; for ordinarily he did not touch 
it; and during the entire conflict he probably con- 
sumed less than any other officer who tasted it at 
all. 1 [e was never under its sway to the direct or 
indirect detriment of the service a single moment. 
And his development was as unique in this as in 
any other respect. He exhibited the remarkable 
spectacle of a man in middle life steadily gaining 
in self control till a propensity once too strong was 
absolutely mastered." 

85 



Grant's Habits 

Richardson, in looking up the antecedents of 
Grant, struck a trail which seemed to lead to in- 
ferences which might help to account for the early 
weakness of liking for whiskey. He visited George- 
town in Brown county, Ohio, where Grant's boy- 
hood was passed. Georgetown is back ten miles 
from the river. The newspaper correspondent 
discovered: 
"Probably more liquor has been consumed in the 
vicinity than in any other of our northern com- 
munities. To be temperate in Brown means to be 
intoxicated only two or three times a year. In 
old times a man who did not get drunk at least on 
the 8th of January, the 22nd of February, and the 
4th of July could hardly maintain his standing in 
the community or in the local churches." 

At the beginning of the war St. Louis supplied 
the information on which the reports of Grant's 
dissipation were sent over the country. News- 
paper correspondents from other cities found 
willing talkers on the habits of Grant while he 
farmed at Hardscrabble. They were given to 
understand by these gossipers that those habits 
in respect to drinking were about as bad as they 
could be. Dr. William Taussig, who saw Grant 
pass his house coming to and going out from the 
city, said that Grant's habits at that time were 
those of "occasional intemperance" and that they 
"had received much wider notice than there was 
warrant for." 

In his lieutenant days Grant "took his glass of 

86 



Grant's Habits 

liquor with the rest of us," was the way a fellow 
officer put it. At one time, realizing what a hold 
his liking for whiskey had obtained, Grant joined 
a temperance organization — the Sons of Temper- 
ance. He ceased to be a steady drinker. His 
intemperance became, as Dr. Taussig described 
it, occasional. Against the taste Grant struggled, 
the lapses becoming less and less frequent. A 
little liquor, which others could take without being 
affected, showed itself on him. In time Grant 
conquered and obtained entire control, but 
through the war and even to the White House he 
carried the reputation unjustly bestowed upon 
him in St. Louis. 

Henry T. Blow spoke to President Lincoln 
about the reports that Grant drank whiskey. 
He was a member of Congress from St. Louis at 
the time. The newspapers were making much of 
Grant's habits in the early part of the war. They 
were charging that the commander was under the 
influence of liquor most of the time. They were 
especially sweeping in their criticism immediately 
after the battle of Shiloh. Blow, who knew the 
facts, went up to the White House to talk with 
Mr. Lincoln and to defend Grant if necessary. 
The President cut short explanations. He said 
to Blow: "I wish I knew what brand of whiskey 
he drinks. I would send a barrel to all my other 
generals." 

While Halleck was Grant's superior with head- 
quarters at St. Louis, he took a like humorous 

87 



Grant's Habits 

view of the stories of Grant's dissipation. The 
day Halleck received the news of the capture of 
Donelson he wrote out a brief statement of the 
victory and put it on the bulletin board in the 
St. Louis hotel where he was stopping. As an 
excited crowd gathered to read, Halleck said: 
"If Grant's a drunkard and can win such vic- 
tories, I shall issue an order that any man found 
sober in St. Louis tonight be punished by fine and 
imprisonment." 

These charges of drunkenness were put forward 
repeatedly during the first two years of the war. 
As late as the preparations for the battle of Chat- 
tanooga, General David Hunter, sent out by 
Secretary Stanton to inspect and report, felt it 
proper to include something of Grant's habits: 
"I was received by General Grant with the 
greatest kindness. He gave me his bed, shared 
with me his room, gave me to ride his favorite 
horse, read to me his dispatches received and 
sent, accompanied on my reviews, and I accom- 
panied him on all his excursions. In fact I saw 
him almost every moment of the three weeks I 
spent in Chattanooga. He is a hard worker, 
writes his own dispatches and orders, and does 
his own thinking. He is modest, quiet, never 
•swears, and seldom drinks, as he only took two 
drinks while I was with him." 

Once a member of the staff wrote about Grant's 
habits. The letter got into print, to the general's 
great annoyance. The offense was never repeated. 



Grant's Habits 

Grant even telegraphed his father that his letters 
must not be given publicity. The staff officer who 
offended was Major Webster. He wrote, just after 
the battle of Shiloh, to Colonel J. S. Stewart: 

"I breakfasted with General Grant. I went on 
board the boat, and rode with him to the field 
about half past eight in the morning. I was with 
him all day. I lay down with him on a small 
parcel of hay which the quartermaster put down 
to keep us out of the mud, in the rear of the artil- 
lery line to the left. He was perfectly sober and 
self-possessed during the day and the entire 
battle. No one claimed he was drunk." 

Regarding the stories of his drunkenness Grant 
was "the silent man" so far as voice was con- 
cerned. He forbade those nearest to him to make 
any defense. That he felt the charges keenly the 
confidential letters he wrote made plain. This is 
from one in 1862: 

"To say that I have not been distressed at these 
attacks upon me would be false, for I have a 
father, mother, wife and children who read them 
and are distressed by them; and I necessarily 
share with them in it. Then, too, all subject to 
my orders read these charges and it is calculated 
to weaken my ability to render efficient service in 
our present cause. One thing I will assure you of, 
however — I cannot be driven from rendering the 
best service within my ability to suppress the 
present rebellion, and, when it is over, retiring 
to the same quiet, it, the rebellion, found me 

89 



Grant's Habits 

enjoying. Notoriety has no charms for me, and 
could I render the same service that I hope it has 
been my fortune to render our just cause without 
being known in the matter, it would be infinitely 
preferable to me." 

Washburne was ever ready to champion Grant. 
The latter was grateful but he would not consent 
that even Washburne should come to his defense 
in this matter of personal character. Grant wrote 
to Washburne in 1862: 

"The great number of attacks made upon me by 
the press of the country is my apology for not 
writing to you oftener, not desiring to give any 
contradiction to them myself. You have inter- 
ested yourself so much as my friend that should I 
say anything it would probably be made use of in 
my behalf." 

With his father Grant had more trouble about 
these charges than with anybody else, to preserve 
silence. The elder Grant could and did write for 
the newspapers. In a letter the general took his 
father to task for something that had been given 
to a Cincinnati paper and urged him not to do it 
again: 

"You must not expect me to write in my own 
defense, nor to permit it from anyone about me. 
I know that the feeling of the troops under my 
command is favorable to me, and so long as I 
continue to do my duty faithfully it will remain 
so. I require no defenders." 

Perhaps the only time that Grant opened his 

90 



Grant* s Habits 

mouth in public upon the subject of his personal 
habits was when he read his second inaugural 
address on the 4th of March, 1873 : 

"Throughout the war and from my candidacy to 
the present office, in 1868, to the close of the 
last Presidential campaign, I have been the sub- 
ject of abuse and slander, scarcely ever equaled 
in political history, which today I feel that I can 
afford to disregard, in view of your verdict, which 
I most gratefully accept as my vindication." 

Some one tried to draw out General Sherman 
in criticism of Grant. The quick-tempered old 
man broke forth: "It won't do, sir. It won't do. 
Grant is a great general. He stood by me when I 
was crazy and I stood by him when he was drunk, 
and now, sir, we stand by each other." About 
the same time that the papers were making 
sweeping charges about Grant's drinking they 
were asserting that Sherman was insane. Sher- 
man had this in mind when he made use of the 
language quoted. He wanted to impress upon 
his listener that the stories of Grant's drunken- 
ness had no more foundation than the allegations 
against his own sanity. 

A recollection of Grant in St. Louis by General 
Henry Prince illustrated the way in which these 
stories of intemperance grew. General Prince 
was at the Planter's when Grant called upon him. 
The captain was dressed as a farmer, his trousers 
tucked in his boots, a blacksnake whip in his 
hands. 

91 



Grant's Habits 

"I was very glad to see him. I was just coming 
out of the hotel and met him on the steps going 
in. I turned to go back with him when he said: 
'No, I have only come up to market with a load 
of wood, and a mutual friend telling me you were 
here, I have called to ask you to come down to 
the farm and spend a week with me.' Again I 
invited him to my apartments in the hotel, but he 
declined to go, as I supposed then on account of 
his rough garb. He made no other request of me 
than to be his guest, and then hastened back to 
the market place. In this little interview, which 
began and ended on the steps of the hotel, his 
manner threw out evidences of his character just 
as I had always seen and read it in the army and 
excited my warmest admiration. I have heard a 
story going the rounds that General Sedgwick 
had said that I told him, at this interview, Grant 
was on a spree and had requested the loan of 
twenty-five cents. I desire to deny in as em- 
phatic terms as I can that such was the fact, and 
it is utterly impossible that General Sedgwick 
could have made any such statement. It is 
purely the creation of some person's idle fancy. 
I recall the conversation perfectly well in which I 
related to General Sedgwick this meeting with 
General Grant in 1859, and of distinctly saying 
that there was no more appearance of dissipation 
in Grant's face and manner than in those of a 
child. I recall how Sedgwick and myself reviewed 
together the mighty changes four years had 

92 



Grant's Habits 

brought in Grant. We contrasted the dress in 
which he had hauled his wood and the uniform of 
power he was at the moment of our conversation 
entitled to wear in handling the armies. Both of 
us agreed that merit, not fortune, was the medium 
of the phenomenon." 

The Clarksville case afforded in the opinion of 
General James Grant Wilson, one of the best 
illustrations of the controversy over Grant's hab- 
its. As the Union army approached Clarksville 
early in the war, a committee of safety poured on 
the ground a large amount of whiskey. The com- 
mittee did this as a matter of public policy. A 
report had reached Clarksville, so the committee 
claimed, that Grant was drunk and unable to 
control the Union soldiers. Some time after- 
wards the owners of the whiskey brought suit 
against the committee of safety for the value of 
the destroyed liquor. The committee set up the 
defense indicated. The trial turned on whether 
Grant was drunk or sober when the Union troops 
reached Clarksville. On the first trial of the case 
the jury disagreed, not deciding whether Grant 
was drunk or sober. On the second trial the ver- 
dict found Grant drunk. A third trial was had at 
which the jury found that the general was per- 
fectly sober. The safety committee lost the case 
and compromised by paying half of the value of 
the destroyed whiskey, amounting to some thou- 
sands of dollars. 

Whatever may have been the measure of truth 

93 



Grant's Habits 

about Grant's fondness for whiskey in early 
years, there is only one side to the testimony on 
other habits. Grant was clean of speech and 
person. No one who knew him in the years he 
lived in St. Louis ever heard him swear. His 
strongest expletive was "Thunder and Lightning!" 
And he used that only on great provocation. 
After he became a farmer he continued to wear 
his old army overcoat. He wore it so long that 
on an occasion, seeming to realize that it was be- 
coming rusty, he half apologized with the remark 
that the garment was made of such good material 
he didn't like to give it up. There were times 
when his outer dress was almost shabby. There 
was no time when he was not fastidious about his 
underclothing. He said to General Horace Porter : 
"I have never taken as much satisfaction as 
some people in making frequent changes of my 
outer clothing. I like to put on a suit of clothes 
when I get up in the morning and wear it until I 
go to bed, unless I have to make a change in my 
dress to meet company. I have been in the habit 
of getting one coat at a time, putting it on and 
wearing it every day as long as it looked respect- 
able, instead of using a best and a second best. 
I know that it is not the right way to manage, but 
a comfortable coat seems like an old friend, and I 
don't like to change it." 

Grant was peculiar in respect to diet. He 
enjoyed his farm living. Corn, beans and many 
other vegetables he liked. The cucumber was an 

94 



Grant's Habits 

especial favorite. In the army he was known to 
make a breakfast on cucumber and coffee. Of 
meat he ate very little and only that when it was 
thoroughly cooked. A rare steak was an abomi- 
nation to him. He cared nothing for game and 
did not hunt. Poultry he would not touch. He 
had a saying that he "never could eat anything 
that goes on two legs." As a result of this taste, 
Grant let many courses at public dinners pass 
untouched. He was considered a very small eater. 
Of fruit he was fond and ate it slowly, as if to 
prolong the enjoyment. 

No intoxicating liquor was served at Grant's 
table in private or public life, in peace or in war, 
save only at formal state dinners in the White 
House. During the war, the general would some- 
times join the members of his staff in a drink of 
whiskey and water at the end of a long ride in bad 
weather, but he never had anything but coffee, 
tea and water on the mess table and never offered 
liquor to visitors. 



95 



Grant, the President 



Grant, the President 

While he was in the White House Grant came 
to the rescue of St. Louis. It was at a time when 
high officials and old friends were conspiring 
to disgrace his administration through internal 
revenue frauds. Grant was an admirer of James 
B. Eads. The great engineer's steady persistence 
and masterly ability in overcoming obstacles and 
accomplishing his ends appealed strongly to the 
man who had shown the same qualities in the 
war. Friendship between Grant and Eads dated 
back to the building of the iron clad gunboats by 
Eads. These boats were turned out in such time 
as seemed almost incredible when the contracts 
were given. They counted for much in Grant's 
plans to open the Mississippi and thus split the 
Confederacy in two. Eads was building the St. 
Louis bridge which bears his name while Grant 
was President. He had put into it the profits of 
the gunboat contracts and had about exhausted 
the local capital support. Engineering and finan- 
cial problems were not all that made the work 
difficult. Steamboat interests were unfriendly. 
They had opposed any bridging of the Mississippi. 
In 1873 the Keokuk Packet line filed a complaint 
with the Secretary of War that the Eads bridge 
was an obstruction to commerce. The complaint 
set forth that, in high water, boats could not pass 
under the arches without lowering their smoke- 
stacks. The steamboat people asked the govern- 
ment to remove the bridge. At that time work 
on the upper structure was nearing completion. 

99 



Grant, the President 

The opening of the bridge for traffic was promised 
for the following year. Judge Taft of Cincinnati, 
father of former President Taft, had been Sec- 
retary of War while the earlier construction of 
the bridge was going on. The complaint of the 
steamboat people had not been made to him. 
The Keokuk Packet line managers saw an oppor- 
tunity when Belknap succeeded Judge Taft. 
Belknap was a Keokuk man. He later retired 
from the cabinet upon the exposure of the post 
tradership scandals involving a member of his 
family. Belknap entertained the complaint of his 
steamboat friends. He appointed a commission 
which confined its investigation mainly to the 
testimony of the steamboat men. General John 
W. Noble, their attorney, attempted in vain to 
get a hearing for the bridge people. 

St. Louis had watched the building of the 
bridge day by day for five years. The city saw a 
great trade territory to the northwest slipping 
away because the river had been bridged above 
while at her front it ran unfettered to the sea, the 
barrier to east and west commerce. A great 
shock came to St. Louisans when the report of 
Belknap's commission was made public. The 
commission found that while the bridge had been 
built in exact accordance with the Act of Congress 
it was nevertheless an obstruction to navigation. 
The report recommended that the bridge should 
come down or that a ship canal be dug around the 
east end of it, advising that the subject be brought 

ioo 



Grant, the President 

to the attention of Congress. The bridge company 
at that time had expended #6,000,000, practically 
exhausting its resources. Negotiations for the 
money necessary to complete the bridge were 
in progress. They were threatened with failure 
if Belknap's commission report went to Congress. 
Dr. William Taussig, in his recollections pre- 
served by the Missouri Historical Society, tells 
how Grant came to the rescue: 

"In this emergency Captain Eads and I con- 
cluded to appeal to the President, and on a hot 
July morning we appeared at the White House, 
sent in our cards and were promptly admitted. 
Upon our entering the cabinet, President Grant 
met Captain Eads with outstretched hands, 
greeting warmly, and then, turning toward me, 
said, with a facetious smile, while shaking hands 
with me: 'How are you, Judge?' I noticed the 
allusion at once and said: 'Mr. President, by ad- 
dressing me as 'Judge' I hope you do not recall a 
former event which has weighed heavily on my 
mind ever since you have attained your high 
position.' He laughed and said: 'Oh, no; you see 
how much better it is than it might have been.' 

"We stated our case and he listened seriously 
and attentively. He had never heard of this 
commission — its appointment or action. After 
awhile he rang the bell and sent for the Secretary. 
General Belknap soon entered, and the President 
at once, rapidly and curtly, asked him a few cate- 
gorical questions — had the bridge been built in 



101 



Grant, the President 

accordance with the provisions of the Act of 
Congress, and had the structure been approved 
by the former Secretary of War? Belknap said 
yes, but claimed the general authority under the 
law given to the Secretary of War to remove 
obstructions to navigation, and offered to send 
for all the papers in the case. 

"The President said nothing for awhile, and 
then, with that peculiar firm set of his lower jaw, 
substantially said: 'I do not care to look at the 
papers. You certainly cannot remove this struc- 
ture on your own judgment. If Congress were to 
order its removal it would have to pay for it. It 
would hardly do that in order to save high smoke- 
stacks from being lowered when passing under the 
bridge. If your Keokuk friends feel aggrieved 
let them sue the bridge people for damages. I 
think, General, you had better drop the case.' 

"Belknap, whose face had colored a deep red, 
rose and, with a bow, left the cabinet. We left 
soon, with warm thanks, and were enabled to 
inform the public and our bankers that this vexa- 
tious proceeding had been entirely abandoned by 
order of the President. 

"I remember particularly one raw, cold Novem- 
ber day in 1873, when he came to our office, 
accompanied by the late Captain Couzins and Mr. 
Chauncey I. Filley, and went out with Captain 
Eads and Colonel Henry Flad, the assistant chief 
engineer, to walk over the first two arches, over 
which only a few narrow planks had been laid. 

102 



Grant, the President 

It was hard and risky work, even for those accus- 
tomed to it. But, as Colonel Flad told me, the 
President walked over it fearlessly and took in 
everything that was shown him with much 
interest. Upon the return of the party Captain 
Eads took a bottle of brandy out of his closet, I 
brought out my box of cigars, and we all sat down 
around a draughtsman's deal table. The Presi- 
dent and those with him were nearly frozen and 
he and they enjoyed the brandy. He smoked 
cigars rapidly and had them half chewed up when 
he threw them away. His conversation and de- 
meanor were as quiet, modest and unassuming as 
those of any private citizen. While looking at 
him I had always to recall to my mind and to 
realize that it was not an ordinary citizen who 
sat and chatted at this table, but the greatest 
man of his time. 
"History has already inscribed this great char- 
acter, and what the country owes to him, upon 
its tablets, but only a few have been privileged to 
know his plain, unassuming disposition, the ease 
with which he turned from the lofty eminence of 
the Presidential chair into the position of a plain 
citizen, the loyalty with which he clung, often to 
his own discomfort and disparagement, to old 
friends and adherents, and withal the quiet, 
impressive dignity which distinguished this unpre- 
tending democratic citizen President." 

St. Louis men and women in numbers, who had 
known Grant in the Gravois days, were welcomed 

103 



Grant, the President 

warmly at the White House. As he drove his 
wood wagon to and from the city, Grant had often 
stopped at the home of the Masure family on 
Chouteau avenue. Mrs. Masure had been Miss 
Amanda Chenie. Following the hospitable tradi- 
tions of old St. Louis, Mrs. Masure had, as often 
as he called, insisted that "the captain" remain 
for dinner. After he became President, one of the 
first appointments made by Grant was that con- 
ferred upon a son of Mrs. Masure. Later Mrs. 
Masure was a guest at the White House and was 
introduced by the President personally as "an old 
and valued friend." But Grant's remembrance 
of the hospitality was shown in a way even more 
practical and suggestive of his entertainment in 
the former days at the Masure home. When Mrs. 
Masure left Washington to return to St. Louis, 
there was delivered to her on the train, with a 
personal message from the President, a basket 
containing the best lunch which the White House 
chef could prepare. 

President Grant looked back upon the wood 
hauling period with no sense of humiliation or 
bitterness. He recalled it as an interesting experi- 
ence with some humorous episodes. When he 
was about to enter upon his first term as Presi- 
dent, he, with Mrs. Grant, was entertained by 
Mr. and Mrs. Henry T. Blow. At that time, in 
1868-9, tne home of the Blows was one of the most 
beautiful suburban places of St. Louis. It was in 
Carondelet, which Mr. Blow hoped to see become 

104 



Grant, the President 

"the Birmingham of America." The Blows were 
hospitable people, entertaining with the charm 
of St. Louis custom. Old friends were invited to 
meet General and Mrs. Grant. The gathering 
was in the nature of a farewell to White Haven 
and godspeed to the White House. After dinner 
Grant suggested a walk through the grounds. As 
he led the way he showed keen interest in recog- 
nizing the familiar surroundings. He pointed 
where he had driven in the backyard his team to 
deliver wood from theGravois farm. But what the 
general dwelt upon was the location of a certain 
tree. He said that on one of his trips, bringing 
the cordwood, he had, with possible carelessness, 
let a hub of the wagon strike that tree and 
bark it badly. The tree was a favorite of Mrs. 
Blow's, one which she had watched develop and 
of which she was proud. Before Grant could 
unload and get away, Mrs. Blow came out and saw 
the damage. Grant smiled broadly as he told the 
party of guests that Mrs. Blow "gave me such a 
scoring as I never before or since have received 
from a woman." One of the guests present, who 
heard the general tell the story was the late Judge 
Charles W. Irwin of Kirkwood, who repeated it, 
shortly after the dinner, to his friend and neigh- 
bor, Judge Enos Clarke. 



10: 





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Grant and the IVhiskey Ring 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

Three St. Louis men wrote books on Grant. 
One of these books was published in 1887. It 
took up Grant's battles, one after the other, and 
showed that his military career was a succession 
of blunders. It convicted the general of utter 
ignorance of the science of war. Another of these 
books appeared in 1879. It was called the "Great 
American Empire." Grant was exposed as a man 
of despotic, vindictive nature, bent upon making 
himself dictator of the United States. If Grant 
succeeded in becoming Emperor of North Amer- 
ica, Roscoe Conkling was to be the Duke of New 
York. The third book was published in 1880, 
after the defeat of the third term movement. It 
purported to be "a complete exposure of the 
illicit whiskey frauds culminating in 1875." It 
alleged that Grant was "an active participant in 
the frauds." These St. Louis authors did not 
regard themselves as humorists. The author, or 
putative author, of the "Secrets of the Great 
Whiskey Ring," was John McDonald, the head 
of the conspiracy. At the close of his three 
hundred and more pages of "evidence" McDon- 
ald, in summing up his revelations, disclaimed 
knowledge that any part of the #2,786,000 reve- 
nue, of which he said the government was robbed 
in his district, went directly to Grant. What he 
claimed was that "Grant knew" money was 
raised by these frauds to finance political cam- 
paigns of which he was the beneficiary. 

President Grant arrived in St. Louis from 

109 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

Washington the evening of the 5th of October, 
1874. He was accompanied by Mrs. Grant and 
their daughter, Secretary of the Navy Borie and 
General Babcock. Ten old friends and Federal 
officials were at the station to meet and welcome 
the Presidential party. Within the following year 
four of the ten were convicted of complicity in the 
Whiskey Ring and were in prison. 

The President had come to visit "the Grant 
farm." He had timed his visit so that he could be 
present at the St. Louis Fair. Both while he was 
lieutenant-general and President, Grant received 
many gifts of livestock. His admirers bestowed 
upon him colts, calves and pigs with pedigrees, 
but especially colts. Grant permitted the mana- 
ger of the farm to show some of his livestock at 
the Fair. The management of the Fair encour- 
aged the entries by Grant as attractions of popular 
interest. As regularly as he could make it conven- 
ient the general came to St. Louis in Fair time. 
One year an enormous steer from the Grant farm 
was exhibited for the benefit of the Soldiers' 
Orphan Home at Webster Groves, the President 
consenting to it at the request of the managers of 
the institution. The steer weighed about two 
thousand pounds. It was driven from the farm 
on the Gravois road to the Fair Grounds with 
much difficulty. Admission to the tent was 
charged, the money being given to the asylum. 
The steer stood the week of the Fair, but on the 
way back to the farm it lay down and died. 

no 



Grant and the ff^hiskey Ring 

In connection with Grant's visit to the Fair in 
1874 occurred an unpleasant incident. It was 
only a day's local sensation at the time, but be- 
fore twelve months had rolled around it had been 
magnified into national concern. It became an 
important part of the circumstantial evidence by 
which conspirators sought to implicate Grant in 
the Whiskey Ring. 

The President visited the Fair on the 6th of 
October. He requested that his presence be not 
announced or noticed with any formality. A seat 
was given him on the platform under the pagoda 
in the center of the amphitheater. There he sat, 
smoking the inevitable cigar, chatting occasion- 
ally with Secretary Borie and looking at the 
entries being judged. That day Grant had two 
entries, Claymore and Young Hambletonian. 
This is Charles G. Gonter's account of the inci- 
dent of which so much was subsequently made by 
the head of the Whiskey Ring: 
"A ring of thoroughbreds was being judged. 
The twelve or fifteen exhibits included some of 
the best products of the stock farms of Kentucky. 
In those days the St. Louis Fair was the annual 
event of the kind for the Mississippi Valley. One 
of the youngsters was entered in the name of 
General Grant. The colt had been given, per- 
haps, from motives of friendship, possibly on 
account of politics. He was a fairly good animal 
but was outclassed. That could be seen at a 
glance by any one with knowledge of horses. 

in . 



Grant and the IF his key Ring 

The general was standing near me. He turned 
and said, 'Charley, what do you think of them?' 

"We had been acquainted many years. I had 
known him when he was Captain Grant in St. 
Louis before the war. He always called me 
'Charley.' I knew the general's entry was in that 
ring and I knew the general knew it. I gave him 
a perfectly frank answer as he expected, pointing 
out one of the Kentucky-bred horses that in my 
judgment was entitled to the blue ribbon. The 
general confirmed my opinion without any hesi- 
tation, saying: 'I guess you are right.' 

"Well, the judges went around the ring several 
times looking over the entries and having them 
galloped to and fro. They seemed to be having 
trouble about the decision. After a long while it 
was announced that the judges couldn't agree; 
that they were evenly divided. The rule was, in 
such cases, to call in an outsider to give the cast- 
ing vote. General John McDonald was named. 
The decision came quickly. The judges stepped 
up to the President's colt and tied on the blue 
ribbon. General Grant was close by me. As I 
looked at him, he flushed, took his cigar out of 
his mouth, threw it on the ground and said in a 
low voice: 'That is an outrage.' 

"He turned and walked away. The award was 
so clearly unfair that everybody was talking 
about it. Soon the directors of the Fair went to 
their rooms to lunch together. As was the cus- 
tom the amphitheater reporters accompanied 

112 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

them. After the lunch the president of the Fair 
Association said to the reporters : 'You gentlemen 
of the press know what was done in the judging 
of that last ring of colts. For the Fair directors I 
can say that we had rather have had a rainy day 
spoiling the attendance than to have seen such an 
act of injustice in our amphitheater. We leave 
the matter in your hands to treat as you see fit.' 

"The newspaper men conferred but didn't 
decide upon anything. I went ahead on my own 
hook, wrote a full story of just what had hap- 
pened. The Globe printed what I wrote. Early in 
the morning, before I started for the Fair Grounds, 
I received a call to come to the office of William 
McKee, the senior proprietor of the paper. As I 
went in he said: 'Charley, you've ruined us.' 

" 'What is the matter?' I asked him. 

" 'Why, that report of the award to General 
Grant's horse,' he said. 

" 'I wrote just what happened,' said I. 'Every- 
body who was there will tell you so.' 

" 'I know,' said Mr. McKee, 'but it will hurt us 
over in Illinois. We will lose our subscribers. 
They worship Grant over there and they will 
think this is an attack on him.' 

" 'Who says so?' I asked. 

" 'JohniwMcDonald,' said Mr. McKee, 'he was 
in here a little while ago.' 

" 'Well,' said I, 'when I went out to report 
the amphitheater you gave me a sheet of white 
paper and told me to report just what happened 

113 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

without favor to anybody and I've followed the 
instructions the best I knew how.' 

"I left the office and went to the Fair Grounds 
expecting to be relieved at any hour. Along in 
the afternoon Mr. McKee came out. When he 
saw me, he walked over and said; 'Charley, that 
article about the award to Grant's horse was all 
right.' 

" 'Who says so?' I asked. 

'The general himself,' Mr. McKee replied. 
'He was in the office awhile after you left, said 
you had made a correct report of what occurred 
and he thanked us for printing it.' " 

Gonter's report of the incident, for printing 
which President Grant thanked the Globe, was 
as follows: 

"We had in this ring one of the finest collections 
that has appeared in the arena for many years, 
representing some of the best roadster blood ex- 
tant — Golddust, Daniel Boone, Green Mountain, 
Black Hawk, Morgan, Highlander, Hamilton, 
Ewald's Dixie, Nig Peacemaker, and Alexander's 
Abdallah. Better could not have been collected 
within the arena of an amphitheater. The horses 
were all speeded and some of them showed excel- 
lent trotting qualities. After considerable delay, 
the judges tied the blue ribbon upon the head of 
President Grant's Claymore, by Peacemaker. It 
is seldom we take exception to the action of com- 
mittees, but in this instance we feel compelled to 
dissent. In our opinion as well as in the opinion 

114 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

of nearly every judge of this noble animal upon 
the ground yesterday, this award was regarded 
with amazement and astonishment, in such a col- 
lection, embracing as it did, the very best horses 
in the country. In all due deference it seemed to 
us that the ribbon was given as a compliment to 
the President and not to the animal." 

In the book which he published six years after 
the St. Louis Fair incident McDonald gave his 
version of the award to Grant's horse. He coup- 
led with that incident his story of the gift of a 
team to the President. In a conversation at 
Washington, McDonald said, Grant had com- 
plained that his stock did not receive premiums 
at the Fair. He urged the President to make an 
exhibition in 1874. On his return to St. Louis he 
called upon the president of the Fair and repeated 
the complaints of General Grant : 

"Mr. Barret replied that the reason President 
Grant had not been given a premium was because 
his stock had been entered in competition with 
that which was superior, and the committees did 
not wish to show partiality to any one. After 
talking with him a while he told me that I might 
be placed on the committee that would award the 
premiums on stock, and, if I wished to assume the 
responsibility, the President's stock might secure 
a premium." 

McDonald says he took the position and when 
the President's entry was brought in the ring he 
told a member of the committee there was one 

US 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

thing he wanted done; obtaining consent to 
which, he would favor anything they wished: 

"This one thing was to give the first premium to 
the President's stallion, and, although there were 
several preeminently superior horses in compe- 
tition, the other members of the committee 
endorsed my act and awarded the blue ribbon. 

"At the time I had a pair of fast horses and ten- 
dered them to President Grant while he remained 
in the city. I was with Grant on several occa- 
sions while he was in St. Louis, and he was greatly 
pleased with the team. Being a subordinate 
officer and wishing to ingratiate myself into the 
good graces of His Excellency, and knowing his 
weakness for fine horseflesh, I told him I would 
present him with the team, but in such a way 
that it would appear as if he had purchased them. 
I had the bills for the wagon, harness and equip- 
ments made out in the name of the President and » 
had the team taken to Washington by Nat Car- 
lin, the superintendent of the President's farm. 
The first week in December, 1874, I dropped in 
at the White House the very day Congress 
assembled, and saw the President in his office. 
He had used the team for some time and was 
delighted with them. I told him that I had a bill of 
sale made out, with minor bills attached, amount- 
ing in all to about $1,750, if my memory serves 
me rightly. The bill was receipted and signed 
before I started from St. Louis. I asked him with 
a smile to hand me a few dollars. He pulled out 

116 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

a fifty dollar bill, and threw it at me, and asked 
if that would do. I told him it was too much and 
threw it back. Then the President gave me a ten 
dollar bill, and I took out of my vest pocket a five 
dollar bill and a two dollar bill, which I gave to 
him in change, thus leaving me three dollars for 
the team." 

Before the war McDonald was a "steamboat 
runner" on the St. Louis levee. That is to say, 
he exerted himself in a variety of energetic ways 
to secure passengers for the line he represented. 
He was a small, wiry man with much nerve and 
no education. After his marriage Mrs. McDonald 
taught him to read and write. When hostilities 
began, McDonald's acquaintance with river men, 
together with his faculty of leadership enabled 
him to get recruits. He did so much toward the 
organization of the Eighth Missouri that he was 
given a commission. He rose to be major of the 
regiment which distinguished itself for hard 
fighting under Sherman. At the close of the war, 
McDonald was breveted brigadier-general. For 
several years his business was pushing claims 
against the quartermaster department at Wash- 
ington. He made considerable money out of 
commissions on what he collected. 

In 1868, Congress created supervisors of inter- 
nal revenue in order to lessen frauds against the 
government. Supervisors were put in charge of 
districts to check up the work of collectors. 
McDonald applied for a supervisorship. He 

117 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

filed remarkable indorsements from St. Louis. 
General Sherman, James E. Yeatman who had 
been foremost in the relief work for wounded 
soldiers and who was known nationally as "Old 
Sanitary," Mayor Nathan Cole, Judges Irwin Z. 
Smith and James S. Farrar, Ex-Governor Thomas 

C. Fletcher, James B. Eads, President George P. 
Plant of the Merchants' Exchange, Lieutenant- 
Governor E. O. Stanard, and others who were 
among the best known and most highly esteemed 
citizens of St. Louis gave endorsements. Some of 
the letters spoke of McDonald's energy and loy- 
alty. Some of them expressed the opinion that 
he would discharge the duties faithfully and 
honestly. There had been revenue frauds in the 
preceding administration under Andrew Johnson. 
It was to put a stop to abuses that supervisors 
were created. Senator Carl Schurz, Congressman 

D. P. Dyer, District Attorney John W. Noble, 
United States Marshal Newcomb, and Congress- 
man G. A. Finkelnburg united in a protest against 
the appointment of McDonald. They said in 
their telegram to Secretary Boutwell: 

"We beg leave to assure you that the reputation 
of this man and his associates are such that can 
bring no moral support to the government in the 
enforcement of the internal revenue laws, and 
that it is quite certain that his qualifications, 
natural or acquired, are such as to render the 
appointment an unfit one to be made." 

McDonald was appointed in November, 1869, 

118 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

his district at first being Arkansas and the Indian 
Territory. Three months later Missouri was 
added and St. Louis became the headquarters. 
That same year the Liberal Republican move- 
ment, on a platform of enfranchisement of Con- 
federates, swept Missouri, the Democrats making 
no nominations. B. Gratz Brown was elected 
governor. Inspired by their success, the Liberal 
Republicans in Missouri began to organize for a 
national campaign in 1872, with the view of 
defeating Grant for re-election, his nomination 
by the regular Republican party being assured. 
McDonald, being the chief Federal official in 
St. Louis, became prominent with the regular 
Republicans. He was very active openly. Secretly 
he organized the Whiskey Ring which went into 
operation September, 1871. The avowed object 
of the ring among the members of it was to 
raise money for Grant's re-election. Conduce G. 
Megrue, who had been president of a national 
bank in Ohio, was brought to St. Louis and given 
charge of details. Ostensibly his business here 
was the agency of a patent paving company. 
Until the Presidential election of 1872, the ring 
operated and considerable sums were turned over 
to national campaign managers. The money 
came freely from McDonald and others. No 
questions were asked. As much as #30,000, it 
was said, was sent to Indiana for the October 
election. 

The ring's plan of operations was simple. 

119 



Grant and the fVhiskey Ring 

Government officials allowed distillers to run a 
specified percentage of their output untaxed. Of 
the untaxed product the distillers paid the ring 
one-half of the amount which would have gone to 
the government if the tax had been paid. The 
magnitude of the St. Louis frauds may be realized 
when it is stated that the conspirators received 
during considerable periods #8,500 a week. 
During the last year of the ring's operations it 
was said that the government's loss at St. Louis 
was #1,500,000. To carry on the frauds required 
complicity of storekeepers and gaugers. These 
men were corrupted. 

The frauds were conducted so successfully be- 
fore the election of 1872 that in 1873 the ring was 
reorganized and resumed operations. Now, there 
was no pretence of party necessity. The money 
was distributed regularly in St. Louis. Occasional 
remittances were made to Washington officials. 
Gaugers and storekeepers and other subordinates 
were carried on the ring payroll at from #50 to 
#100 a month. The greater part of the fund was 
divided into five parts, one of which was myster- 
iously set apart for "the man in the country." 
Each of the ringleaders netted #1,000 and upwards 
a week. 

The frauds were apparent. The existence of 
the ring was known to many. Comparison of the 
shipments of high wines by rail from St. Louis 
with the number of gallons paying tax for a given 
period showed the illicit distilling. The figures 

120 



Grant and the fVhiskey Ring 

were of record. Treasury agents came out inter- 
mittently with orders to investigate. Advance 
information of the coming was sent to the St. 
Louis managers by Washington segments of the 
ring. Sometimes packages of #5,000 or #10,000 
were placed in the hands of these agents or thrown 
over the transoms into their hotel rooms. The 
agents reported they could find nothing wrong. 
"Put your house in order" telegraphed from 
Washington meant the coming of agents who 
could not be corrupted. Then distillers were told 
to run straight until further notice. 

One vital element of strength held the ring to- 
gether. That was the oft-repeated assertion "the 
old man knows." There was a single connection 
between the ring and "the old man." That link 
was McDonald. The supervisor maintained such 
relations with the President that he convinced his 
co-conspirators, the official rank and file and the 
distillers they were safe. The supervisor achieved 
this generally through his political activity in be- 
half of the administration but specifically through 
his adroit catering to the President's fondness for 
horses. 

What seemed to be the crucial test of McDon- 
ald's relationship with the President came when a 
general order was issued by direction of Secretary 
Bristow shifting the supervisors. McDonald was 
ordered to go to Philadelphia. That meant the 
death knell of the St. Louis Whiskey Ring. 
McDonald went to Washington and saw the 

121 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

President. The order was revoked by direction 
of Grant. McDonald came back to St. Louis vic- 
torious. The conspirators believed more strongly 
than ever before that "the old man knew." 
Nevertheless the lightning struck. The ring was 
shattered. Grant wrote his historic endorsement 
on the St. Louis revelations: "Let no guilty man 
escape." Month after month McDonald told his 
fellow conspirators "the old man" didn't mean 
it. He was indicted, tried and convicted. He 
said he would be pardoned immediately. He 
wore stripes seventeen months in the Missouri 
penitentiary. Other ringleaders suffered with 
their chief. Minor officials and distillers were 
indicted but let off with mild punishment on 
pleas of guilty, in consideration of their testimony 
given against the leaders. Only one indicted man 
escaped. He was General Babcock. A grand 
jury headed by one of the men who had indorsed 
McDonald for supervisor indicted Babcock. 
A jury acquitted on the strength of Grant's 
testimony. 

A former United States Senator from Missouri, 
John B. Henderson, was chosen by the Attorney- 
General to aid the district attorney, D. P. Dyer, 
in the prosecution of the Whiskey Ring. In one 
of the earlier trials, General Henderson, referring 
to the interference with the commissioner of 
internal revenue, said: 
"What right had Babcock to go to Douglass and 
induce him to withdraw his agents. Douglass 

122 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

was placed in his position to see that the revenue 
laws of the government were properly enforced. 
What business then had Douglass with him? 
When an official goes into office, he should be free 
and independent of all influences except that of 
law, and if he recognizes any other master, then 
this government is tumbling down. What right 
had the President to interfere with Commissioner 
Douglass in the proper discharge of his duties or 
with the Secretary of the Treasury? None. And 
Douglass showed a lamentable weakness of char- 
acter when he listened to Babcock's dictates. 
He should either have insisted that his orders, 
as they existed, be carried out, or should have 
resigned his office. Now, why did Douglass bend 
the supple hinges of his knee and permit any 
interference by the President ? This was Douglass' 
own business, and he stood responsible for it 
under his official oath. He was bound to listen 
to no dictation from the President, Babcock, or 
any other officer and it was his duty to see that 
that order was carried out, or resign. Would that 
we had officials who possessed more of that sterner 
stuff of which the office-holders of olden times 
were made! Why do they not leave their office 
when they cannot remain there honorably? Is it 
to be that because a man holds an office at the 
hands of another, he is to be a bonded slave?" 

When the news of General Henderson's speech 
reached Washington, the attorney-general tele- 
graphed for the official stenographic report of that 

123 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

part relating to the President's interference with 
the commissioner of internal revenue in respect 
to the order moving the supervisors. A cabinet 
meeting was called. "I am not on trial," Grant 
was reported to have said. Henderson was re- 
moved and in his place as special prosecutor 
James O. Broadhead was appointed. This action 
was widely interpreted as evidence of the Presi- 
dent's interest in the indicted and of a purpose to 
defeat the ends of justice. It gave hope to those 
whose trials were approaching. As the time for 
the trial of his secretary, General Babcock, drew 
near, the President did another thing, extraordi- 
nary and without precedent in the history of the 
country. He prepared to come to St. Louis to 
testify for the defense. After the trial began, the 
presence of the President was waived and by 
agreement between the prosecution and the 
defense his deposition was taken at the White 
House before the Chief Justice of the United 
States Supreme Court. President Grant testified 
that he at first approved the order transferring 
supervisors and then revoked it. He explained 
his change of mind: 
"Sometime when Mr. Richardson was Secretary, 
I think at all events before Secretary Bristow 
became the head of the department, Mr. Douglass 
in talking with me expressed the idea that it 
would be a good plan occasionally to shift the 
various supervisors from one district to another. 
I expressed myself favorably towards it, but it 

124 



Grant and the U^hiskey Ring 

was not done then ; nor was it thought of any more 
by me until it became evident that the Treasury 
was being defrauded of a portion of the revenue 
it should receive from the distillation of spirits in 
the West. Secretary Bristow at that time called 
upon me and made a general statement of his 
suspicions, when I suggested to him this idea. 
On that suggestion the order making these trans- 
fers of supervisors was made. At that time I did 
not understand that there was any suspicion at 
all of the officials, but that each official had 
his own way of transacting his business. These 
distillers, having so much pecuniary interest in 
deceiving the officials, learn their ways and know 
how to avoid them. My idea was that by putting 
in new supervisors, acquainted with their duties, 
over them, they would run across and detect 
their crooked ways." 

The order of transfer was issued. President 
Grant told why he revoked the order: 
"I resisted all efforts to have the order revoked 
until I became convinced that it should be re- 
voked or suspended in the interest of detecting 
frauds that had already been committed. In my 
conversation with Supervisor Tutton, he said to 
me that if the object of that order was to detect 
frauds that had already been committed, he 
thought it would not be accomplished. He re- 
marked that this order was to go into effect on 
the 15th of February. This conversation took 
place late in January. He alleged that it would 

12; 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

give the distillers who had been defrauding the 
Treasury three weeks notice to get their houses 
in order, and be prepared to receive the new 
supervisor; that he, himself, would probably go 
into a district where frauds had been committed 
and he would find everything in good order, and 
he would be compelled to so report; that the 
order would probably result in stopping the 
frauds at least for a time, but would not lead to 
the detection of those that had already been com- 
mitted. He said that if the order was revoked, it 
would be regarded as a triumph for those that 
had been defrauding the Treasury. It would 
throw them off their guard, and he could send 
special agents of the Treasury to the suspected 
distillers — send good men, such a one as he men- 
tioned, Mr. Brooks. They could go out and would 
not be known to the distillers, and before they 
could be aware of it, the latters' frauds could be 
detected; the proofs would be complete, the distil- 
leries could be seized, and their owners prosecuted. 
I felt so conscious that his argument was sound, 
and that it was in the interest of the detection 
and punishment of fraud that this order should be 
suspended, I then told him that I would suspend 
it immediately, and I did so without further con- 
sultation with anyone. My recollection is that I 
wrote the direction for the suspension of the order 
on a card, in pencil, before leaving my office that 
afternoon, and that the order was issued and sent 
to the Treasury by one of my secretaries. " 

126 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

In his deposition the President reiterated in 
various forms that Secretary Babcock had never 
by word or act sought to influence him in behalf 
of the Whiskey Ring. Two questions and answers, 
one on direct, the other on cross-examination, 
will serve to illustrate the whole deposition. 

"Q. 'Have you ever seen anything in the con- 
duct of General Babcock, or has he ever said 
anything to you which indicated to your mind 
that he was in any way interested in or connected 
with the Whiskey Ring at St. Louis or elsewhere?' 
A. 'Never.' 

"Q. 'Perhaps you are aware, General, that the 
Whiskey Ring have persistently tried to fix the 
origin of that ring in the necessity for funds to 
carry on the political campaign; did you ever 
have any intimation from General Babcock or 
any one else, in any manner, directly or indi- 
rectly, that any funds for political purposes were 
being raised by any improper methods?' A. 'I 
never did. I have seen since these trials intima- 
tions of that sort in the newspapers, but never 
before.' " 

McDonald incorporated in his book some let- 
ters and telegrams which were not produced in 
the series of trials but not one of these proved 
that Grant knew. In the course of the trials, 
counsel for the defense intimated that the pros- 
ecution was smirching the President. General 
Henderson replied: 

"It is my sacred opinion that the President knew 

127 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

nothing of these frauds. I protest solemnly 
against such declarations as that just made. It 
is my solemn opinion that the President has been 
grossly deceived by his professed friends here and 
in Washington and that he neither knew nor sus- 
pected the depth of rascality going on here." 

The grand jury which found the indictment 
against Babcock adopted a resolution vindicating 
and commending the President. Lawyers for the 
prosecution, newspaper men who worked for 
months on the Whiskey Ring revelations, grand 
jurymen who sought the uttermost ends of the 
conspiracy — all have gone on record that nowhere 
did evidence appear that Grant had guilty knowl- 
edge of the ring, much less that he had any share 
in the spoils. Only one man has asserted that 
"Grant knew!' That man was McDonald. Upon 
his word rests the case. The "Secrets of the 
Great Whiskey Ring" were told adroitly. The 
telegrams and letters of the conspirators were 
massed with skill. They were circumstantial but 
not conclusive without McDonald's inferences 
and assertions. 

To Andrew D. White, Grant put forth this 
challenge: "If you find me guilty of any share in 
a dishonest act drag me forth and expose me." 

When Secretary Bristow was unwilling to 
answer certain questions asked about the Whis- 
key Ring by Congress, Grant sent this message 
to him: "I beg to relieve you from all obligations 
of secrecy on this subject and desire not only that 

128 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

you may answer all questions relating to it but 
that all members of my cabinet may also be 
called upon to testify in the same matter." 

In the Bixby collection of Grant letters is the 
historic indorsement "Let no guilty man escape." 
It was written by President Grant on the back of 
a long letter from W. D. W. Barnard who marked 
it "Confidential." The wife of Barnard was a 
relative of Mrs. Grant. At that time the grand 
jury was investigating the Whiskey Ring and had 
returned some indictments. Babcock had not 
been indicted, but was referred to in the letter. 

Confidential Kirkwood, Mo., July 19th, 1875. 
Dear General: 

Writing Genl Sherman in my behalf in 1864, 
you done me the high honor to close with, 

"Mr. Barnard, has been a sincere friend of 
mine, when I wanted friends and when there was 
no apparent possible chance of him ever deriving 
any benefit from it, you may trust Mr. B. with 
the assurance that he will betray no trust." 

Valueing these assurances of your high regard 
and confidence. — I need hardly tell you how 
assiduously I have striven to prove worthy of, 
and maintain same — Or refer to history for the 
re-occuring evidence of the many-fold intricaces 
of polished inuendo and intrigue, indulged in, 
around Power — instigated by Place, Jelousy, 
Unfriendliness, Revenge, &c, &c — From evidence 
in my possession, I feel that I have not escaped 

129 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

the efforts of such; to place us in antagonism. 
But I am rewarded by the consciousness of your 
generous feelings of old. 

If, there ever was a time, when, your true 
admirers should exert themselves, in this section, 
to correct the inferences, sought to be created, 
against you, by your political adversaries and 
unworthy parties here, who have occupied place 
and dastardly outraged confidence — with others 
yet in office^It has been, the past three months. 

The "clips" enclosed, from the Republican and 
Times of today — marked "A" and- "B" — show 
some of the many efforts, to tarnish your great 
name — by implication— that from the Republi- 
can, it is intimated, beares the "ear marks" of 
John B. Henderson — assisting in the prosecution 
of cases before the Grand Jury — the closing of 
which is simply infamous — and I fear, aided in 
his old animosity, by a report whispered around, 
since Casey left the city, by the apologists of the 
"ring," that he said, "Mr. Bristow had deceived 
you and would not retain the Tres'y portfolio 
thirty days" — I have denied this assertion, when 
made in my presence and have written him what 
has been said. 

Neither Henderson and Dyer like a bone in 
your body — they will do what generality of law- 
yers consider their duty — nothing more — and 
both inspired with political aspirations, will take 
good care to advance what they may regard their 
own, or friends interest. 

130 



Grant and the IVhiskey Ring 

Feeling thus, I can not but think, that the 
interest of the Government and your own past 
record, should be protected by additional coun- 
sel — known to be actuated by the highest sense 
of duty and fielty — regardless of the prospective 
influence of press — Party — or self angrandise- 
ment — * * * * is a mere stick and had it not been 
for high family and social influences, it is pretty 
well understood, would have been impeached in 
his * * * office sometime since. 

Again, as I have had occasion to say to Mr. 
Newcomb himself, I do not believe there will be a 
conviction of the indited, whilst he retains the 
Marshalship — convinced of this, of what I know 
has occured and occuring, I can not but state it to 
you — the reasons for which would make this com- 
munication too lengthy although I premise, who 
the secreted hand is, that holds him in power — 
and why. 

*** ** ***^ j t ^ as b een generally understood for 

years, has been head and ears cognisant of — an 
abettor — and participant of the "ring swag" — as 
far back as 71, it is stated and believed that he 
asserted your being consulted and consenting to 
the ring — received two portions of the divide — 
with the understanding among the initiated, that 
one part was for the lamented Ford — not one cent 
of which I am confident was ever proffered — did 
he get — or would have taken. 

I am creditably informed that these facts 
could have been brought out, but for interviews 

131 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

with and influences brought to bear upon a wit- 
ness and a seeming studdied effort to shield him 
*** under the audacious assertion that his indite- 
ment, would lead to exposures that would strike so 
high, as to distroy the Party of the Republic. 

*** should be called before the Grand Jury and 
probed to the quick — but parties herein named, 
with Benton, Blow, Walsh (endorsers on Demo- 
crat purchase), Maguire, Newcomb and others, 
do not want it — an inditement could and should 
be had, but may not take place, from influences 
exerted and will be continued, to save him — and 
in after time, will be said, would have been, but 
for protecting others — and this by some of the 
very men herein named. 

Col. Normeile prosecuting Circuit Atty — 
McDonald and Joyce's confidential friend, asked 
me Saturday "how far matters were going to be 
pushed towards them" — said, I thought until the 
last man made restitution to his utmost ability to 
pay and were punished to the extent of the law — - 
if local officers done their duty. He replied that 
both had told him, that day when seeking bail — 
"that you could not give them up, or Babcock 
would be lost" — (this is the kind of talk indulged 
in and frequently by the "*** claquers" speaking 
as openly of you) I said, they, or anyone, who 
talks that way, little knew the stuff of which you 
are made — let the blow fall upon whom it may, 
you would see that the honor of the Government 
was guarded and the laws enforced. 

132 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

It is truly painful to write thus — but viewing 
the great stake — the means — the ways — the 
desperation — to thwart justice — even by drag- 
ging in their shameful schemes — the names of 
innocent and dead. Duty requires that you be 
kept advised — even at the expense of tireing. 

I have the honor to be 

Respectfully and assuredly 
Your Friend 
To W. D. W. Barnard. 

The President. 

Upon the back of this letter, which is printed 
without correction of Barnard's somewhat eccen- 
tric spelling and punctuation, Grant wrote the 
famous indorsement, 

"Let no guilty man escape." 

A later chapter is to be added to the history of 
the Whiskey Ring. It relates to a statement 
made by Grant when he was dying. Judge 
David P. Dyer, of the United States District 
Court, talking of the national scandal of forty 
years ago, said for publication now: 

"General Grant had no knowledge of the exis- 
tence of the Whiskey Ring when the prosecutions 
began, and therefore was not in the remotest man- 
ner a party to or in any wise connected therewith. 
His great mistake was in trusting men who did 
know, and were parties thereto, and this after 
their connection with the ring was a matter of 
common information. Grant was an honest man 

133 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

and implicitly trusted those he believed to be his 
friends." 

As United States district attorney, Judge D. P. 
Dyer conducted the investigation from beginning 
to end, and brought about the exposure of this 
monumental scheme to defraud. Every particle 
of evidence presented to the grand jury and in- 
troduced at the trials in court passed through the 
hands of Judge Dyer. Furthermore, a mass of 
confidential information which did not reach the 
public came into the possession of the district 
attorney before and after the trials in court. 
This threw a great deal of light upon the ramifi- 
cations of the stupendous conspiracy, which had 
for its object the depletion of the public treasury 
and the enriching of the conspirators. "At no 
time during the prolonged inquiry, and in the 
years since," Judge Dyer said, "was anything 
discovered that reflected upon General Grant's 
integrity." But when almost a decade had passed ; 
when sentences had been served, and when the 
great scandal had passed into history, there came 
a sequel which brought out in clear light the 
truth about Grant and the Whiskey Ring, as 
it never before had been presented. 

Judge Dyer tells it. After the conviction of 
many, and the acquittal of Babcock, Bristow was 
practically forced out of the Secretaryship of the 
Treasury, for his aggressive prosecution of those 
accused. He then went to New York and began 
the practice of law. The style of his firm was 

134 



Grant and the JJ^hiskey Ring 

Bristow, Burnett, Peet & Opdyke. General Grant, 
after his retirement from the Presidency on the 
4th of March, 1877, took up his residence also in 
the City of New York. Grant and Bristow, in a 
public place, met face to face. Grant saw Bris- 
tow, but without the slightest sign of recognition 
turned his back upon him and walked away. 
The action was deliberate. It cut Bristow to the 
quick. Years later Judge Dyer was in New York. 
He called upon General Bristow, finding him high 
up in an office building in front of a wood fire in 
genuine Kentucky comfort. The face of the for- 
mer Secretary of the Treasury lighted up as he 
recognized his visitor, and after hearty greetings 
and the passing of commonplace remarks, General 
Bristow said: "Colonel Dyer, I have something 
to tell you that you will be glad to hear. While 
General Grant was hopelessly ill in his residence 
in New York, and before he was taken to Mt. 
McGregor, I received a note from him asking me 
to call and see him. I showed the note to Mrs. 
Bristow. Remembering, as she did, the public 
insult given me by General Grant, she protested 
against my going. I said to her, 'General Grant 
was my chief and made me a member of his cabi- 
net. He has sent for me. He has not long to live 
and I must go and see him.' I went to his house 
and was shown to his room. I found him sitting 
in an invalid's chair with wrappings about his 
neck. Pie greeted me kindly, and said, 'General 
Bristow, I wanted to see you for the purpose of 

135 



Grant and the Whiskey Ring 

acknowledging that I have done you wrong and 
greatly misjudged you. I believed that in the 
prosecution of General Babcock and others you 
and those with whom you were associated were 
actuated by motives of enmity towards me and 
my administration. I was wrong and you were 
right.' 

"These were the words of General Grant, as 
General Bristow, with much feeling, repeated 
them to me," said Judge Dyer. "To my mind no 
braver thing was ever done by General Grant in 
his illustrious life than this acknowledgment to 
General Bristow. General Grant believed in the 
innocence of Babcock. He gave his deposition, 
which was read at the trial; and it was that depo- 
sition and the comment of the court upon it, that 
influenced the jury's verdict. When and how 
General Grant came to see that he had been 
deceived by false friends he did not state. I have 
felt long that this incident stated ought to be 
given publicity in some permanent form. Grant 
and Bristow are both dead. They were great 



136 



Grant and the Third Term 



Grant and the Third Term 

The movement to nominate General Grant in 
1880 for a third term found its earliest support in 
St. Louis. It was championed insistently by the 
Globe-Democrat with all of the vigor at the com- 
mand of the editor, Joseph B. McCullagh. The 
Republican organization of Missouri, under the 
leadership of Chauncey I. Filley, was committed 
early to the movement and sent a delegation 
bound by the most positive instructions to vote 
for Grant. One of the thirty delegates broke 
away and voted for Washburne, but twenty-nine 
were recorded from first to last for Grant. 

On the contrary the anti-third term movement 
was formally started in St. Louis. A national 
convention was held in Masonic hall and an 
address to the country voicing opposition to the 
nomination of Grant was issued. This conven- 
tion was preceded by a mass meeting which filled 
to the doors, Mercantile Library hall, the princi- 
pal auditorium of St. Louis at that time. The 
meeting was held on the 12th of March. A reso- 
lution was adopted declaring it is the sense of this 
meeting that the nomination of a Presidential 
candidate for a third term is inexpedient and 
likely to endanger the success of the Republican 
party. 

The call for a national anti-third term conven- 
tion followed the mass meeting. On the 6th of 
May the delegates assembled in Masonic hall. 
John B. Henderson presided. One of the princi- 
pal addresses was delivered by Bluford Wilson, 

139 



Grant and the Third Term 

who had been solicitor of the Treasury during the 
Whiskey Ring prosecutions. Henry Hitchcock 
of St. Louis was chairman of the committee on 
resolutions. 

It was noteworthy that in none of the addresses 
at the mass meeting and at the convention was 
anything said derogatory of the personal charac- 
ter of General Grant. A third term was opposed 
vigorously, but upon the broad ground that it 
was against the traditions and not in accord with 
the spirit of the government of the United States. 

Not long before the nominating convention met 
in June, 1880, Grant wrote to Henry White: "I 
would not accept a nomination (to a third term) 
if it were tendered, unless it were to come under 
such circumstances as to make it an imperative 
duty — circumstances not likely to arise." 

During the National Republican convention in 
Chicago, 306 delegates voted thirty-six times for 
Grant, but the anti-third term sentiment was too 
strong for them. What Grant really thought of 
the third term movement was not known until 
many years afterwards when personal letters 
became public. In 1875-6 Grant stopped a move- 
ment to nominate him for a third term immedi- 
ately following his second by writing a most 
positive prohibition. In 1878, while he was on 
his tour around the world, the third term sug- 
gestion was renewed and a message was sent 
through a relative. Grant replied, writing from 
Rome : 

140 



Grant and the Third Term 

"It is very kind in Mr. Clark and the gentlemen 
associated with him to send the message you con- 
vey from them; but they must recollect that I had 
the harness on for sixteen years and feel no incli- 
nation to wear it again. I sincerely hope that the 
North will so thoroughly rally by next election as 
to bury the last remnant of secession proclivities, 
and put in the executive chair a firm and steady 
hand, free from Utopian ideas purifying the party 
that elected him out of existence." 

Even stronger in expression of his position was 
the letter which Grant wrote to Conkling of New 
York as the time drew near for the convention. 
He said: 

"There have been exigencies that warranted a 
second term, but I do not believe that the best 
interests, or the country's good ever demanded a 
third term, or ever will. I had my doubts even 
as to the desirability of a second term, and you 
know that I have so expressed myself to you in 
our confidential talks. This is a big country, full 
of brainy and ambitious men, who can serve the 
country eminently well as its President, and I 
sincerely question the policy of thwarting their 
noble ambition. I feel that our country has 
amply repaid me for all my services by the honors 
which it has bestowed upon me, and I feel that to 
be a candidate or accept the nomination for a 
third term would be ingratitude, and would 
eventually affect me with the people who have 

loved me and whom I love. I am still of the 

141 



Grant and the Third Term 

opinion that I should speak to the country; that 
I should break the silence in a letter declining 
emphatically to accept a nomination for a third 
term. I am aware that this matter has gone on 
to an extent where an announcement from me 
refusing to accept would be looked upon by some 
as cowardice. But would it not be far better to 
be considered a coward than a usurper? I also 
appreciate your effort in, as you say, the final and 
supreme effort of your life for supremacy, yet, in 
the face of all, I still believe that my name should 
not be presented. And, further, I believe that 
your anxiety about the effect an announcement 
from me would have on your future is an error." 

The foregoing letter was written to Conkling 
just a month before the Chicago convention of 
1880. 

Four times in as many national conventions, 
the vote of Missouri was cast for Grant. In St. 
Louis was erected the first monument to him. 
Two days after the death of the general at Mt. 
McGregor, President Henry C. Haarstick of the 
Merchants' Exchange called a meeting of citizens 
in the great hall. A memorial was adopted. It 
was hoped that the remains might rest in Belle- 
fontaine, but the family yielded to the solicita- 
tions of New York. On the 8th of August, 1885, 
the day of the obsequies in Riverside Park, a 
great funeral pageant moved through the streets 
of St. Louis. Two days later the pageant com- 
mittee met in the office of the mayor, David R. 

142 



Grant and the Third Term 

Francis, and resolved to form an association "for 
the purpose of erecting in the City of St. Louis a 
monument to General Grant." General William 
T. Sherman, who had taken up his residence in 
St. Louis, was made president of the association. 
Mayor Francis and President Haarstick of the 
Merchants' Exchange were elected vice-presi- 
dents. William J. Lemp was chosen treasurer 
and George H. Morgan secretary. Union and 
Confederate veterans, Grant men in 1880 and 
anti-third termers, Republicans and Democrats, 
joined in the city's tribute. On the 25th of Octo- 
ber the statue, Bringhurst's conception, was 
unveiled on the Twelfth street market place 
where Grant had sold cordwood. 

In the morning of Tuesday, the 6th of May, 
1884, Grant thought he was a rich man. His son 
Buck had gone into partnership with a smooth- 
spoken young New Yorker, Ferdinand Ward. 
The general had invested about #200,000 and had 
allowed his name to be used. He had received 
large sums which Ward alleged to be profits of 
the business. Before night of that May day, 
Grant knew that not only had he lost all, but that 
others had suffered. He wrote to his relatives: 
''Financially the Grant family is ruined for the 
present by the most stupendous frauds ever per- 
petrated." Grant stripped himself of everything 
to pay some of the obligations. The Grant farm 
at St. Louis was one of the assets transferred. It 
sold for #60,000. 

143 



Grant and the Third Term 

To leave something for his family, Grant began 
the writing of his Memoirs. He finished the book 
on the 1st of July, 1885, and died on the 23rd of 
July. The Memoirs yielded in' royalties over 
£525,000. 

Soon after the Grant & Ward failure, the general 
said in conversation with a friend: "I have made 
it the rule of my life to trust a man long after 
other people gave him up, but I don't see how I 
can trust any human being again." 

As the end approached, Grant, reviewing his 
career, and answering the question whether there 
was anything to regret, said: "No, nothing but 
being deceived in people." 



144 



The Grant Farm Letters 



The Grant Farm Letters 

In the midst of the desperate campaigning from 
the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, during the sum- 
mer of 1864, at the supreme test of his qualities as 
a commander, Grant looked forward to the time 
when he would retire to the St. Louis farm and 
raise colts. He was riding one day with his staff 
when the army of the Potomac was concentrating 
for the hard fighting at Cold Harbor. As the 
party approached Totopotomoy creek, they came 
upon a teamster whipping his horses. The man 
was swearing and striking one of the horses in the 
face with the butt-end of his heavy whip. Grant 
galloped up in front of the teamster, raised his 
fist and demanded: "What does this conduct 
mean, you scoundrel ? Stop beating those horses." 
The teamster made an insolent answer and struck 
the horse again. Grant shook his fist at the 
teamster, called up an officer and said: "Take 
this man in charge, and have him tied up to a tree 
for six hours as a punishment for his brutality." 
The incident is told by General Horace Porter, 
who, as a member of the staff, was present. It is 
said to be one of only two or three occasions 
during the war when Grant showed anger. That 
night while at dinner with his staff, the general 
referred to the scene with the teamster and said, 
as General Porter recalled the conversation: 
"If people knew how much more they could get 
out of a horse by gentleness than by harshness, 
they would save a great deal of trouble both to 
the horse and to the man. A horse is a particu- 

147 



The Grant Farm Letters 

larly intelligent animal. He can be made to do 
almost anything if his master has intelligence 
enough to let him know what is required. Some 
men, for instance, when they want to lead a 
horse forward, turn toward him and stare him in 
the face. He, of course, thinks they are barring 
his way, and he stands still. If they would turn 
their back to him and move on he would naturally 
follow. I am looking forward longingly to the 
time when I can end this war and can settle down 
on my St. Louis farm and raise horses. I love to 
train young colts and I will invite you all to visit 
me and take a hand in the amusement. When 
old age comes on, and I get too feeble to move 
about, I expect to derive my chief pleasure from 
sitting in a big arm chair in the center of a ring — 
a sort of training course — holding a colt's leading- 
line in my hand, and watching him run around 
the ring." 

Until his death in the fall of 1874, C. W. Ford 
represented Grant at St. Louis in a business way. 
He was the local manager of the Adams Express 
Company. He had known Grant at the time the 
lieutenant was stationed at Sackett's Harbor. 
Their admiration for good horses had drawn the 
two men together. A strong intimacy had grown 
in the twenty years' acquaintance. Ford was ap- 
pointed collector of internal revenue. At frequent 
intervals he drove out to the Grant farm and saw 
that the superintendent carried out the instruc- 
tions of the owner. When Grant visited St. Louis 

148 



The Grant Farm Letters 

Ford's team was at his disposal. To John F. 
Long, another old St. Louis friend, and a neigh- 
bor on the Gravois road, the President wrote this 
letter, which is in the archives of the Missouri 
Historical Society: 

EXECUTIVE MANSION 



Washington, D. C, Oct. 25th, 1873. 
Dear Judge: 

Our old friend Ford is gone! It was just the 
day week before his death that I met him in 
Toledo, Ohio, where he had gone expressly to 
meet me. He looked and seemed as well then — 
and as cheerful too — as I had ever seen him. I 
had known Ford from 1851, at which time I was 
a 1st Lt. 4th Infy., stationed at Sackett's Harbor, 
N. Y., where he then resided, a young lawyer 
beloved by all who knew him. For some reason 
I then formed an attachment for him which has 
never changed. I trust he bore from this world, 
to a better, the same good feeling toward me. I 
know he did; for from the time I was a Lieut, 
through the time of my farming experience in St. 
Louis Co., my later military duties, and present 
duties, he has been the same welcome visitor; he 
himself never having changed a tone of familiar 
acquaintance towards me during all this period, 
and it is certain I never did towards him. He was 
noble, generous, true & honest. His sacrifices in 
this life have all been to help others. 

149 



The Grant Farm Letters 

I started to write something very different — of 
a business nature connected with Ford's last visit 
to me, but when I came to write his name could 
not do so. The subject must be deferred for 
another occasion. 

My kindest regards to you & yours, 

Very truly, 
Judge J. F. Long, U. S. Grant. 

St. Louis, Mo. 

For some time before his death Ford was much 
troubled about the Whiskey Ring. That he had 
knowledge of the frauds there was no doubt. The 
evidence taken at the trials did not show that the 
collector received part of the fund. Several wit- 
nesses testified that they saw money put in an 
envelope and were told it was for the collector. 
No one of them saw the money delivered. Before 
McDonald was appointed supervisor, Ford pro- 
tested against the appointment. Subsequently 
he joined those who endorsed it. In his revela- 
tions of the "Secrets of the Great Whiskey Ring" 
McDonald asserted that Ford was a member of 
the ring. Ford's friends did not believe he re- 
ceived money but held to the theory that he was 
deceived by McDonald with the argument that 
the money was needed for campaign purposes and 
that the people at Washington were consenting 
to the frauds. In the fall of 1874 information was 
laid before the collector to the effect that the 
extent of the frauds was known and that exposure 

ISO 



The Grant Farm Letters 

in the near future was inevitable. Ford left the 
city, went to Chicago, stopped with a friend who 
was a railroad official and was found dead in his 
room the next morning. 

Before the new collector was appointed three 
principals in the Whiskey Ring went to the office 
one Sunday and destroyed records which were 
evidence of frauds. The collector appointed to 
succeed Ford was indicted the next year and sent 
to prison. Fred W. Mathias preceded Ford in the 
internal revenue service at St. Louis, resigning in 
June, 1869. Ford was one of the early appointees 
of Grant after he became President. Mathias 
said that Ford was an honest man but yielded to 
the leaders in the conspiracy on the plea that the 
money was to be used to re-elect Grant. As the 
conspiracy widened and there was less and less 
pretense of political purpose in the frauds, Ford 
became alarmed and determined to know whether 
Grant understood what was going on. He sought 
the President and, according to Mr. Mathias, 
said to him: "General, I suppose you know what 
we are doing in St. Louis and that it is all right?" 
Grant's reply was such that Ford realized he had 
no conception of what was going on and did not 
enlighten him. Very soon after this, the death 
of Ford at Chicago was announced. "The fact 
was," said Mathias, "that Grant was surrounded 
by men on the make who kept all knowledge of 
these matters from him." 

Perhaps no revelation of the Whiskey Ring 

151 



The Grant Farm Letters 

shocked Grant more than that relating to Ford. 
When the President's deposition in the Babcock 
case was taken questions about Ford were asked 
and were answered with emphasis : 

"Speaking of C. W. Ford, I presume, General, 
that your confidence in him continued up to the 
time of his death? 

"I never had a suspicion that anything was 
wrong. 

"Did you preserve letters that you received from 
him? 

"No sir, I did not preserve them. We corre- 
sponded regularly. I had such confidence in him 
that I left him to conduct my own affairs there. 
And I had to be constantly sending him money. 
I would send checks to him of $500, #1,000 and 
#1,200 at a time, and he would pay out the money 
and account to me for it. My confidence in him 
was such that I did that without even saving my 
letters." 

After the death of Ford, Judge John F. Long, 
who had received a Federal appointment, un- 
dertook to exercise supervision of the farm. A 
change of superintendents was made. Elrod, who 
had managed the farm several years, retired. 
The place was given to Nat Carlin, who had been 
in the employ of the Adams Express Company 
and to whom Ford had given a general letter of 
recommendation. The President carried on cor- 
respondence direct with Carlin, giving him defi- 
nite and detailed instructions about the farm. 

152 



The Grant Farm Letters 

He wrote occasionally to Judge Long. Most of 
these letters were upon the White House station- 
ery. There was no dictation. Every word was in 
the handwriting of the President. The letters 
show that Grant had definite and decided views 
as to tillage, but that his chief interest was in the 
breeding of horses. They make it evident the 
general still held to the hope he had expressed in 
the last year of the Civil War, that after his pub- 
lic life he might retire to the St. Louis farm and 
raise colts. 

When these letters about the farm manage- 
ment were written, the President was in the 
stormiest period of his eight years in the White 
House. Some of the highest officers of the gov- 
ernment were involved in scandals. There had 
been changes in the cabinet. A reform wave in 
protest against existing conditions at Washing- 
ton was sweeping the country. In the President's 
own party there was revolt on the part of those 
who feared that Grant might be induced to submit 
his name for another term, as some of his friends 
were then urging. In the midst of such turmoil 
Grant wrote these letters to the farm. He wrote 
with a fluency and fullness in striking contrast 
with his habit of speech. General Horace Porter, 
who came to know Grant with an intimacy that 
perhaps no other writer has shown, described the 
general's method of composition and manner of 
writing: 
"Whatever came from his pen was grammati- 

153 



The Grant Farm Letters 

cally correct, well punctuated, and seldom showed 
an error in spelling. In the field he never had a 
dictionary in his possession and when in doubt 
about the orthography of a word, he was never 
known to write it first on a separate slip of paper 
to see how it looked. He spelled with heroic 
audacity, and 'chanced it' on the correctness. 
While in rare instances he made a mistake in 
doubling the consonants where unnecessary, or 
in writing a single consonant where two were 
required, he really spelled with great accuracy. 
He wrote with the first pen he picked up and 
never stopped to consider whether it was sharp- 
pointed or blunt-nibbed, good or bad. 

"His powers of concentration of thought were 
often shown by the circumstances under which he 
wrote. Nothing that went on around him, upon 
the field or in his quarters, could distract his 
attention or interrupt him. Sometimes when his 
tent was filled with officers, talking and laughing 
at the top of their voices, he would turn to his 
table and write the most important communi- 
cations. There would then be an immediate 
'Hush!' and abundant excuses offered by the 
company; but he always insisted upon the con- 
versation going on, and after awhile his officers 
came to understand his wishes in this respect, to 
learn that noise was apparently a stimulus rather 
than a check upon his flow of ideas, and to realize 
that nothing short of a general attack along the 
whole line could divert his thoughts from the 

154 



The Grant Farm Letters 

subject upon which his mind was concentrated. 
In writing, his style was vigorous and terse with 
little ornament. His work was performed swiftly 
and uninterruptedly, but without any marked 
display of nervous energy. His thoughts flowed 
as freely from his mind as the ink from his pen. 
He was never at a loss for an expression and 
seldom interlined a word or made a material 
correction." 

One of the Grant farm letters in Mr. Bixby's 
collection is a curiosity in form. It was written 
on the two sides of a plain envelope. The Grant 
family, in accordance with custom, was spending 
part of the summer at Long Branch on the Jersey 
coast. Apparently having no stationery at hand, 
the President picked up this envelope and wrote 
his wishes to Judge Long. He covered the front 
of the envelope and, turning it over, filled out the 
flaps of the reverse. The purpose of this letter 
was to have Butcher Boy shipped from St. Louis 
to Washington. Butcher Boy was a fast pacing 
horse that had been in General Grant's possession 
eight years and had been sent out from Washing- 
ton to the farm. 

Grant had fourteen horses when he bought 
Butcher Boy. That purchase was another in the 
long series of horse stories associated with him. 
The general had returned to Washington from a 
trip to the West in October, 1865, after the war. 
He was riding from his office in the War Depart- 
ment to his home for dinner one day, when a boy 

155 



The Grant Farm Letters 

in shirt sleeves flashed past driving a little white 
horse to a cart. Grant turned and looked. The 
horse went out of sight while the general mar- 
veled. Washington was not so large but that the 
little white pacer could be located. The owner 
was a butcher. When he learned that the lieu- 
tenant-general had taken a fancy to his homely 
pony, the butcher thought a good deal more of the 
horse for which he had paid only $76. Grant gave 
$300 and named his new favorite "Butcher Boy." 
The great interest which the President took in 
the farm is shown by the money he expended as 
well as by these letters of detailed instructions. 
The letters are printed as written, without change 
of spelling or punctuation. About the end of 
1874, Grant wrote: "I have already paid out this 
year some #12,000 on the farm and have not got 
the means to go further." But at that time he 
had no intention to abandon his often expressed 
hope of making it the place of retirement for old 
age, for he added: "When I go out in the spring 
I may make arrangements to put the place on a 
good footing." Spring brought the exposure of 
the Whiskey Ring and the general's plans for 
his future underwent radical change. 



156 



The Grant Farm Letters 

EXECUTIVE MANSION 



Washington, D. G, Oct. 27th, 1873. 
Dear Sir: 

When Mr. Ford was in Toledo I gave him a 
memorandum of what I wished done at the farm. 
It will be impossible now to repeat. I will how- 
ever make arrangements through Judge John F. 
Long, of St. Louis to pay up the carpenters for 
their work, and all other debts on the farm. 

You are at liberty to sell all the calves you can, 
at good prices, and also cows from time to time. 
You may take as many horses to board and exer- 
cise as you can attend to. It is my intention to 
get out of cattle entirely in the spring. I author- 
ized Mr. Ford also to buy from the cattle yards 
one hundred car loads of manure. 

My instructions have always been to get the 
farm all in grass and to purchase grain. This I 
want still to be done. 

Mr. F. also spoke of two mares you wished to 
purchase. If you can sell cattle, corn or other 
produce to make the purchase you may do so. 

I think the two-year old bay mare, out of 
Topsy, should be bred. Colts, horse colts, that 
you do not think will improve enough by training 
to pay for the trouble you may keep for farm 
work or sell at your option. 

Unless I should give other directions you may 
account to, and consult with, Judge Long in mat- 
ters connected with the farm. 

157 



The Grant Farm Letters 

In a few days I will write to Judge Long and it 
is probable he will go down to the farm to see you. 

I wrote Mr. Elrod that his connection with the 

farm would end with this month, but that he was 

at liberty to occupy any vacant house on the 

place, except the one he is now in, until he is 

located. v . , 

Yours truly, 

U. S. Grant. 
Mr. Carlin, 

Webster Groves P. O. 



158 



The Grant Farm Letters 

EXECUTIVE MANSION 



Washington, D. C, Nov. 28th, 1873. 
Dear Sir: 

Your letter of the 22d inst. was received yester- 
day. I will answer it in the order of your inquir- 
ies. Mr. Elrod was notified in the summer, or 
spring, that his services on the farm would not be 
retained after the fall. He should make efforts to 
give you full possession without delay. If you 
have hands to board you will require all the room 
in the house. The inventory of effects on the 
farm is not a matter of much importance, as every 
thing there is required for the use of the farm, or 
for feeding the stock. 

As stated before I do not wish to rent any por- 
tion of the farm to any body. I would much 
prefer the land to lay idle, or run to pasture, to 
renting it. This applies to G. W. Dent's land as 
well as mine. I do not see anything at present 
that I can do for Mr. Elrod. If it was in my 
power to help him I would do so with pleasure. 
The best thing for him, it seems to me, is to rent 
Mr. Tesson's place. 

Your dispositon of the manure I approve of. 
As a rule I favor top dressing. But lands that are 
to be cultivated there is no way of using manure 
except to plough under. I would suggest that the 
land in grass be manured first. If there is any left 
it may be put on any other land you think best. 
I want to get the farm in grass as rapidly as pos- 

159 



The Grant Farm Letters 

sible and cultivate none except as the meadows 
begin to wear out when they must be cultivated 
for a year or two before they can be got in order 
to reset. Put in oats & grass and corn and grass 
as you propose. 

I do not feel disposed to buy fencing material 
to fence off the meadows as you suggest until the 
farm pays for it. But the outside fences should 
be good so as to secure the stock. There is a cross 
fence in the south wood pasture, separating the 
burned house from the larger part of that field, and 
one round the hill field, or orchard, both of which 
might be removed. That orchard is getting old 
and might be left in the general pasture. 

I directed Elrod to straiten the road along the 
creek before the rail-road was built so as to have 
the creek in the pasture. Your doing so now I 
approve of, and it will give you some more rails. 
You may also make the pond in the north pasture 
as suggested in your letter. My directions have 
been for years to use the dead and fallen timber 
for fire wood and for burning lime, and to clear 
out all the wood land to about the thickness 
timber should be left to grow, leaving standing 
the most desirable varieties of timber. 

You may train Beauty and then sell her to 
the best advantage you can. I am glad you are 
arranging to turn the stallions out this winter. It 
is a wonder to me that young Hambletonian is 
alive now with the care — or lack of care — that he 
has gone through with. You had better breed 

1 60 



The Grant Farm Letters 

the bay two-year old mare in the spring. All the 
other colts you may try as they get old enough, 
and the fillies that you think will not pay for 
training you may set to breeding, and the horse 
colts you may sell when you can do so to advan- 
tage, or keep them for farm work if needed. I 
will send you two very fine mares next summer, 
possibly more. One, a sister to Young Hamble- 
tonian, is now with foal to Messenger Duroc, 
probably the most valuable horse in America. 
The other is a Knox mare, and will be stinted to 
Jay Gould, a horse that has trotted in 2.21 >£, 
before she goes out. I will send this letter to the 
care of Judge Long. But let me know in your 
next where I am to address you hereafter. I shall 
be obliged probably to get some one else to take 
the Judge's place which 1 am very sorry for. 

Yours truly, 
[N. Carlin, Esq., U. S. Grant. 

Webster Groves P. 0.] 



161 



The Grant Farm Letters 

EXECUTIVE MANSION 



Washington, D. C, March 8th, 1874. 
Dear Sir: 

In my last letter I forgot to say anything in 
answer to your questions in regard to the two 
stallions on the farm. So far as Peacemaker's 
pedigree is concerned I can get it reviewed from 
the gentleman — Mr. Sanford — who raised him. 
Young Hambletonian was sired by Iron Duke, 
now owned, and always owned, in Orange Co., 
N. Y. And almost on the adjoining farm to his 
sire, old Hambletonian. The full pedigree of Iron 
Duke can be got — if you have not got it — from 
the Turf Register. Hambletonian's dam was a 
very fast and stylish mare — Addie — that I got in 
1865. She was the full sister of one of the best 
stallions in Massachusetts — where both were 
raised — but I do not know the name of the stal- 
lion nor do I recollect his owner's name. If I 
knew either, the pedigree of the dam would be 
easily obtained. Addie was a dark bay — not a 
white spot on her — of great speed and high car- 
riage. Her full brother is a sorrel with white face 
and two or three white legs. This accounts for 
the color of Hambletonian, he being from a bay 
sire as well as dam. 

Now that the "fence law" has gone into effect, 
and the Spring promises to be an early one, might 
you not have Dr. Sharp's place put in oats & 
clover? If it can be done, even by a few days hire 
of extra teams, I think I would do it. 

Yours &c 
N. Carlin, Esq. U. S. Grant. 

162 



The Grant Farm Letters 

EXECUTIVE MANSION 



Washington, D. C, Apl. 14th, 1874. 
Dear Sir: 

Your letter announcing the arrival of Richard 
with the six mares is received. Of the four that 
went from here one is an old thoroughbred race 
mare, raised in Virginia not far from here, whose 
pedigree and performance can, no doubt, be easily 
obtained. The two mares taken in at Pittsburg 
are mother and colt. The mother is supposed to 
be thoroughbred, but her pedigree cannot be 
obtained. She was raised in the South. Her colt 
was sired by a Yellow Mexican Saddle horse I 
had, of great beauty, but not blooded of course. 
Enclosed I send you all I know of the largest of 
the three black mares. The other two are Black 
Hawk Morgan's, no doubt sire and dam. They 
are too small to breed from to get anything 
extra, but if they have colts they should make 
good durable roadsters. I would breed them to 
the bay stallion. I presume you will breed Topsy's 
three-year old colt? If there is any promise 
in Jennie's three-year old I would develop it. 
Otherwise breed her too. You are aware that she 
was sired by Young Hambletonian when but two 
years old. 

Your statement for Feby. & March was re- 
ceived. I would like expense account to be given 
with the same detail that you give receipts — 
same as given in your previous statements. Soon 

163 



The Grant Farm Letters 

you will have pasture for all but the work horses 
so that most of the expense of purchasing feed 
will be cut off. I hope that hereafter we will be 
able to raise enough. 

Yours truly, 

U. S. Grant. 
Nat. Carlin, Esq. 



164 



The Grant Farm Letters 

EXECUTIVE MANSION 



Washington, D. C, June 7th, 1874. 
Dear Sir: 

As I have not heard from you recently I write 
to make some enquiries and to make one or two 
conditioned suggestions. First, I would like to 
know how you have the farm planted this season: 
the condition of crops, fruit, &c. Next, I would 
ask the condition of the stock, how the mares 
have been bred, whether they are supposed to be 
in foal, &c. If you have any two-year old fillies 
I think I would breed them. If Jennie's three-year 
old colt (filly) does not promise good speed I 
would breed her to Peace Maker (proper name 
Claymore). If she is likely to be fast I would pre- 
fer keeping her as an advertisement for Hamble- 
tonian and for my own use when she is older. 
Hambletonian's sister has a filly colt by Messenger 
Duroc and will be stinted to him again. I am 
anxious to get a horse colt from her to add to 
the stock of the farm. She is large and the horse 
large and the sire of some of the fastest trotting 
horses now living. Would it not be well to put in 
this fall as much wheat and timothy as you can 
find ground suitable to grow timothy upon? 
There is no use to attempt to raise grass on poor 
soil. Has lime been tried on any of the fields ? If 

so with what success? 

Yours truly, 

N. Carlin, Esq. U. S. Grant. 

165 



The Grant Farm Letters 

(On front side of plain white envelope.) 

Long Branch, N. J., July 20th, 1874. 
Dear Judge: 

Being reduced down to a pair of carriage 
horses and one saddle horse I have made ar- 
rangements for the shipment of Butcher Boy if 

(Reverse side of envelope.) 

he is still serviceable as a buggy horse, with good 
care. Will you do me the favor to send this down 
to the farm, at my expense and tell Carlin to de- 
liver the horse to Adams Ex. Co. for shipment 
without delay 

(1) 

unless the horse is becoming decrepid from old 
age. If I get him here I will keep him 

(2) 

as long as he and I live. 

Yours truly, 

[Judge John F. Long, U. S. Grant. 

St. Louis, Mo.] 



166 



The Grant Farm Letters 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 29th, 1874. 
Dear Judge: 

I hasten to return your letter of the 27th to 
Carlin just received and read by me. I am too 
busy — having but just commenced my message 
to Congress to write at length, but wish to say 
that the business directions to Carlin I approve 
of. But there is an impression you have — and 
which you necessarily took from one of my let- 
ters — which does Carlin injustice and which I 
will correct. Carlin did not say that six hundred 
dollars would pay his present debts nor did he 
specify any amount. He said to me that there 
were four bills which ought to be paid at once, 
and proceeded to give the amounts of each and to 
whom due, the figuring I did in my head from 
memory when I came to write. I cannot say even 
that he left me under the impression that there 
were no more bills. The fact is he had turned 
over to him the farm and stock with nothing to 
sell but the cattle and a few pigs, and not enough 
to feed the balance until a new crop could be 
raised; with correction your instructions are 
timely and good. In the course of a few days I 
will send you a check for $1000.00. Should more 
be necessary to pay up my taxes and indebtedness 
elsewhere I will send it. I want Carlin also to 
pick up during the winter four or five more brood 
mares when he can do so on favorable terms. I 
will forward you means from time to time to meet 
his bills. Ford made the contract with Carlin. 

167 



The Grant Farm Letters 

The amount agreed upon was as I understood it, 
#800.00 per annum. He finding everything him- 
self except he has the house to live in and neces- 
sarily gets his fuel from the farm. The man who 
goes in the spring gets #600.00 with fuel. In 
addition I allow him a liberal garden plot with 
team and time to do the plowing. The balance 
of the work is done out of his own time."xxxxx 

Yours truly, 

[Judge John F. Long, U. S. Grant. 

St. Louis, Mo.] 



168 



The Grant Farm Letters 

EXECUTIVE MANSION 



Washington, D. C, Dec. 26th, 1874. 
Dear Sir: 

Enclosed I send you a letter from Mr. Akers, of 
Lawrence, Kansas. I have written to Mr. A. 
saying that I would enclose his letter to you and 
authorize you to select from among the stallions 
that he wishes to dispose of one to keep on my 
place the next season. I will make the terms with 
Mr. Akers. You might select about eight mares 
to breed to his horse and continue the rest with 
our own. If you have an opportunity to sell 
Hambletonian in the spring you might sell him, 
or dispose of him something on the terms I will 
take a horse from Mr. A. I am glad to hear that 
the horses and colts are doing so well. I repeat, 
if the mares you are driving are likely to make a 
good team I would continue driving them. If 
they are not likely to fulfill your expectations 
then breed them. 

I really am not able to send you the articles you 
ask for. I have already paid out this year some 
#12,000.00 on the farm and have not got the 
means to go further. When I go out in the spring 
I may make arrangements to put the place on a 
good footing. Yours tmlyj 

N. Carlin, Esq. U. S. Grant. 

P. S. Write to Mr. Akers on receipt of this. 

169 



The Grant Farm Letters 

EXECUTIVE MANSION 



Washington, Apl. 24th, 1875. 
Dear Sir: 

Your letter of the 12th only reached me on the 
22d, probably owing to my absence during the 
greater part of the time between these dates. In 
regard to asking Mr. Sprague to send the horse 
Rhode Island to my farm I cannot do it. If he 
does not send at the request of Mr. Akers he need 
not go. I regret to learn the missing of so many 
foals. I had hoped to get a few more colts from 
Jennie. She is only eighteen years old. Do you 
think the smallest black mare is in foal? 

In regard to the cows on the place I wish you 
would turn over one of them to Air. Jackson. 
The remainder you can take on the terms con- 
tained in your letter. Let me know how many 
colts we are likely to have this year. 

Yours &c. 

U. S. Grant. 
N. Carlin, Esq. 



170 



The Grant Farm Letters 

Long Branch, N. J., Aug. 12th, 1875. 

Mr. Nat. Carlin, Supt. of Stock in White 
Haven Farm, Mo., will please deliver to the order 
of the Hon. J. R. Jones, of Chicago, 111., my gray 
gelding Butcher Boy. 

U. S. Grant. 



171 



The Grant Farm Letters 

Custom House, Port of St. Louis, 
Surveyor's Office, Oct. 13th, 1875. 
Natl. Carlin, Esq. 

I am just in receipt of President Grant's letter 
of the 1 2th inst. in which he directs me to carry 
out his instructions given me in my office on the 
26th ult: to close out all his personal property on 
the farm, and to rent or lease out the Farm — and 
to give possession upon perfecting the Lease. 

Hence I advise you that I shall sell all remain- 
ing property on the farm (included in the schedule 
you furnished the Prest.) on Tuesday next the 
19th inst. And that from the 20th inst. your ser- 
vices on the farm will cease. Your personal ser- 
vices will be paid for to that date. 

Very truly yours, 

John F. Long, 

Spl. Agent for 
U. S. Grant. 



172 



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